Posts Tagged ‘ballet’

Lake Country Chiefs Cheer, a nonprofit organization, is currently taking registrations for its 2010 season.

Class begin August 11 and will be held from 6:10 to 7:10 p.m. Wednesdays at To The Pointe Performing Arts, 1115 Cottonwood Avenue, Hartland, Wisconsin.

For more information, or to access a registration form, contact To The Pointe at info@tothepointe.com or call 262-367-7177.

By Mignon Furman

 Tip 1
What can go wrong with arabesque? I see back legs unstretched and turned in, with little attempt to turn out from the hip. As a child I was always told that the arabesque must be the longest line you can make from the tip of the middle finger of the hand extended in front to the big toe of the raised leg. The middle finger should be in line with the middle of the forehead.

Fabio Lo Giudice from Italy and Shaun Bate from England in American Academy of ballet Summer School's Gala performance at Purchase College (Photo by Costas)

Tip 2
Another golden rule I was taught is that in an arabesque the shoulder of the front arm is never lower than that of the side arm. Think of second arabesque—how often do you see the waist collapse and the front shoulder drop? The side arm should be extended to the side and slightly behind the shoulder line. Often, in order to get the shoulders square, students lock the arm in the shoulder joint instead of extending it freely from the joint.

DanceLifeTV.com is at the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS. Just attended a press conference announcing the 2010 winners. More updates coming later.

Men’s Gold

No Medal Awarded

Woman’s Gold

Cao Shuci (Peoples Republic of China)

Men’s Silver

Kosuke Okumura (Japan)

Woman’s Silver

Candice Adea (Philippines)

Men’s Bronze (Tie)

Kyohei Yoshida (Japan)

Zhang Xi (Peoples Republic of China)

Woman’s Bronze

Maki Onuki (Japan)

JUNIOR DIVISION

Men’s Gold

Marcelino Sambe’ (Portugal)

Woman’s Gold

Ji Young Chae (South Korea)

Men’s Silver

Ki-Min Kim (South Korea)

Woman’s Silver (TIE)

Fumi Kaneko (Japan)

Alys Shee (Canada)

Junior Bronze Men

Derek Dunn (USA)

Woman’s Bronze

Mariana Layu’n (Mexico)

Northern Cincinnati Youth Ballet in Ohio is offering a summer intensive August 2 to 13 at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels in ballet, pointe, variations, pas de deux, modern, contemporary, conditioning, dance history, makeup, composition, nutrition, and fitness.

Email NCYB@fuse.net for a registration packet. To learn more, visit www.nycbdance.com.

NCYB also offers a children’s dance camp for ages 4 to 8 in July, with instruction in creative movement, dance history, makeup, costume-making, and theater. Session 1, from July 12 to16, has a Swan Lake theme; session 2, from July 19-23, has a Cinderella theme. The cost for one week is $125; for two weeks, $220.

The Washington Ballet will launch a trainee program this fall that’s aimed at providing full-time training and performance experiences to classically trained ballet students ages 17 and older who aspire to professional careers.

Carlos Valcarcel, a choreographer and longtime faculty member of the Washington School of Ballet, has been named ballet master of the program. Valcarcel will manage the program’s day-to-day operations, expand and contribute to the repertoire, and stage and coach works from the classical repertoire as well as new works.

The one- or two-year program will run from September through May. Trainees will maintain a vigorous performance schedule, dancing alongside professional company members, and will be considered for positions with The Washington Ballet’s Studio Company and its professional company.

Dancers interested in auditioning for the program should send a DVD of barre work, center work, pointe work for women, men’s work for men, and a classical variation along with a curriculum vitae and a $25 audition fee to: Trainee Program, The Washington Ballet, 3515 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016.

To learn more, contact the school’s manager, Donna Glover, at Dglover@WashingtonBallet.org or 202.362.3606, extension 149.

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
One of the weakest areas I have seen in students who audition for my summer school is the pirouette. If students cannot balance, they cannot pirouette. Therefore, have them start by balancing on two feet from age 8 or 9, feeling the body centered, then progress to balancing on one foot with the working leg in passé position. Once they have felt their balance, turning will become easier. Of course, the head, turnout, and arms must be synchronized, but the balance is the basis.

Tip 2
The second area that needs work is picking up enchainment (combinations). Set a combination of basic vocabulary: glissade derrière, jeté derrière, and two assemblé over. Repeat this twice and then add one pas de chat, a wait for one count, and then two pas de chat (one count each). Typically, dancers find it difficult to learn and to perform up to tempo, and their glissades have no demi-plié. (They look like poorly performed sissonnes.) The glissade must begin and end with demi-plié and the closing foot must stretch before closing. The combination must flow and keep moving.

The Scripps Performing Arts Academy is registering students for its summer camps in dance and musical theater at its locations in Scripps Ranch and Carmel Valley in California.

The programs include “Whirling, Twirling Tiny Tots” for ages 3 to 5, “Pirates and Princesses” for ages 3 to 7, “The Little Mamma Mia Mermaid” for ages 3 to 12, “iCarly” and “Pop Stars Rock” for ages 5 to 12, and “Broadway Bound” for 12- to 14-year-olds. To reserve a spot, call 858.509.2624 (Carmel Valley) or 858.586.7834 (Scripps Ranch).

The institute also plans a summer intensive in ballet and contemporary dance from July 26 to August 13 for intermediate and advanced dancers from ages 10 to 19. Admission is by audition only.

By Cheryl Ossola and David Favrot

Critiquing as a Learning Tool
I’m a fiction writer, working on my first novel. With such a solitary task, it helps to find a group of like-minded souls with whom to share travails, epiphanies, and complaints about the sorry state of publishing. But the greater purpose of such groups is to exchange pages of works in progress and provide constructive criticism. I’ve found critiquing others’ work to be as valuable as the input on my own work is (and at times more so), and it occurs to me that this process of learning through analysis could be true for dance students as well.

The typical studio climate tends to discourage students from criticizing others, in an effort to keep bruised egos and fountains of tears to a minimum. And that’s as it should be. But what about attending local performances with your students and sitting down for a critique session afterward? As long as no one knows the choreographer or any of the performers, the stage is set for a safe, frank discussion of what worked and what didn’t. In that duet with unison dancing, why did the movement seem so much more evocative on Dancer A? What went wrong when Dancer B fell out of her fourth pirouette? If you got bored, was it because of the choreography, pacing, poor technique, or lack of stage presence? What changes would you make to improve the piece or the performances?

Though there might not be a single right answer, certain rules apply. It’s tough to reach creative heights in your chosen art form if you don’t have a strong foundation of technical skill and comprehension of concepts. As a writer I need to understand point of view, story structure, and characterization, and sometimes it’s easier to grasp those elements when they’re demonstrated well (or poorly, for that matter) in someone else’s work. It’s one thing to be told what to do; it’s another to get out the magnifying glass and make discoveries that you can then relate to your own work.

Kids as critics? Why not? There’s much to learn. —Cheryl Ossola, Editor in Chief

Time Machine’s Bumpy Ride
Most people have dreamed of traveling back in time. For Christmas, I did just that.

For an afternoon I was perched once again in a nosebleed seat in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House on a miserably hot July 17, 1988, for an eye-opening performance of Le Sacre du Printemps. My much-younger self was a perfect match for Louis Armstrong’s recollection of his own boyhood—“I didn’t know nothing and didn’t even suspect much”—and I’d never seen anything like this before.

In those days, not many people had. The touring Joffrey Ballet was performing a then-new reconstruction by Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer of Le Sacre as seen at its Ballets Russes premiere in 1913, with Nicholas Roerich’s costumes and decor and Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography. The Paris premiere was one of the great scandals in dance history: a storm of booing, catcalls, and fisticuffs in the audience, with Nijinsky backstage screaming counts at his dancers, unable to make himself heard above the din. (If I had a real time machine, that evening would be one of my first stops.)

My afternoon of time travel—thanks to a gift DVD—had a kink. I wasn’t watching the Joffrey, with Beatriz Rodriguez incandescent as the Chosen One. But in a better world, I could have been. A 1989 documentary, The Search for Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring, included a Joffrey performance of the full ballet and interviews with Hodson and Archer. It “was broadcast throughout the U.S., Europe, and we think also Japan,” Hodson now says. “At any rate, as it was never released for purchase, it has been widely pirated.”

So instead, I was watching the Maryinsky (Kirov) Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, in the reconstructed Le Sacre. It was fun, and Stravinsky’s score is one of conductor Valery Gergiev’s showpieces. But it wasn’t the Joffrey. And they were first. —David Favrot, Associate Editor

Mix fun, competition, and discipline to keep boys engaged and challenged

By Theodore Bale

Establishing an effective program for boys in ballet requires special considerations when it comes to motivation, progress, injury prevention, and social interaction. Three experts with demonstrated success in teaching classical technique to boys share their thoughts:

• Jefferson Baum, former director of dance at the National Dance Institute in New Mexico and current faculty member at The School of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in Santa Fe, New Mexico;
• John Grensback, artistic director of Oregon Ballet Academy in Eugene;
• José Mateo, artistic director of José Mateo Ballet Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Was a boys-only ballet class part of your own early training?

John Grensback: My training was a bit unusual. My teacher was Ed Parish, who had studied with the great Nijinska. Ed pulled me from the streets onto the stage. He became my foster father and the one who raised me. He was known in Chicago for his well-trained boys, and his Nutcracker production was always filled with boys. There was a very athletic boys’ class. He

Jefferson Baum is big on discipline with the boys’ ballet class at Aspen Santa Fe Ballet School in New Mexico. (Photo by Gary Sloan)

made it fun for us, and many boys were saved from a troubled environment by dance. At times it was over our head, but it kept us occupied, and some of us even went on to become professional dancers. Ed gave us little stretch boxes for our feet, if you can believe it. But he would make it fun for us and told us not to worry if we didn’t have the perfect body. My motto now is “Serious Dance, Serious Fun.”

José Mateo: I started training very late, and it was exclusively with young girls. When I started modern dance, however, there were a lot of boys. Princeton had just gone [fully] co-ed [in 1969], so lots of boys were already enrolled. When I started training seriously in ballet in New York, there were always a healthy number of men in those classes, but at the Princeton Ballet Society it was exclusively young women and all of the men were guest artists.

The modern dance training at Princeton was wonderful because of its proximity to New York, so we always had teachers who were in the companies of Alwin Nikolais, José Limón, and Anna Sokolow. We got a different look at different techniques. Erick Hawkins was a big influence for me.

When I went to Europe for the first time in the early 1970s, I realized that men could have extension. You didn’t see that in America very much at that time. A lot of what had been considered solely women’s technique in America was not only possible but required of men in European ballet.

Jefferson Baum: My mom, Nancy Baum, was a teacher at Chicago Ballet. She started a boys’ class, and we did pushups and calisthenics, and then we had to go to this barre thing and kick out our legs. At the end of the year, she asked us to be in a show. We were only 14, and she said, “You’re going to be in the show with girls.” The girls came in and they were basically wearing nothing, and we all said, “OK!”

John Prince did a master class, and after that he told me that I was talented and could really do something, but I would have to leave and go to a school. I didn’t want to leave my friends, though. My mom and sister had gone to Interlochen [Center for the Arts] in Michigan. I auditioned there and the director told me that I was talented but she wasn’t going to accept me. I was crushed. She said, “One other boy here is better than you are, and you need to be the best.” She told me to go where I could get proper training and I ended up at North Carolina School of the Arts. I found her years later when I was a dancer at Metropolitan Opera Ballet and I sent her a dozen roses and thanked her for not accepting me!

I studied at NCSA with Duncan Noble, and he had a special way of doing men’s class. I learned a lot from him, and he became the “Jedi master” of my ballet world. After that I was at the School of American Ballet with Stanley Williams and he took a real interest in me and helped me a lot.

When I was learning ballet I had a boys’ class, and Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev were household names. All of us aspired to be like them. Who are the heroes now?

John Grensback: I went to a party at the School of American Ballet when I was 14 and there was Peter Martins. He gave me great advice. I was in class with Fernando Bujones, Gelsey Kirkland, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Boys were treated a bit more special in those days because there weren’t so many of us. I never paid for class. Our American dancers are our stars now. Many of them are good at tricks, but the art form has declined slightly. Carlos Acosta and Ethan Stiefel are examples of how we have surpassed even the Russians. Today’s American male dancer is as strong as anybody.

José Mateo: I don’t know that we have those role models now. There are certainly a lot of dancers in the U.S. who have the technique of Baryshnikov or Nureyev, but their personalities have not been promoted in the same way. I remember doing a flyer with a picture of Baryshnikov in the center, surrounded by pictures of male athletes, when we first opened our school. Every time I return to that flyer, I think it’s the most effective tool for marketing ballet to boys. That was around 1987. Baryshnikov was in the movies then, and was still dancing and moving into his White Oak Dance Project. But Nureyev had moved to Paris and was a little out of the picture in terms of the minds of young boys.

On the recent Ballets Russes centennial, I was surprised by how much Nijinsky had fallen out of the public sphere. In the dance boom [of the 1960s to early 1990s], everybody knew who Nijinsky was. It’s shocking how little ballet history young dancers have. We take our students to the Harvard Theatre Collection whenever there is an exhibit on costumes and theater. There are still ballet students who don’t know about Diaghilev.

“Our culture is less homophobic today than it was 30 years ago, and I think for that reason we have more boys in ballet class now.” —José Mateo

People measure achievement in ballet by the companies they join, but there is less awareness of what we are trying to accomplish here and what makes a great male ballet dancer. I feel there is a great decline in the dance community itself in awareness of what constitutes a fine male dancer. Sometimes I catch my students watching a ballet variation on a cell phone, and I’ll ask them who is dancing. Often they don’t know.

Jefferson Baum: Role models? There are none. When I tell the boys that I took class alongside Baryshnikov at the School of American Ballet [taught by Stanley Williams], the boys know about him. They are clueless about Nureyev, though, who was also in that class. So, no, the boys don’t really have anybody at that level to aspire to—Fernando Bujones, Peter Schaufuss, or Peter Martins, for example. One of my best friends is [former New York City Ballet principal dancer] Jock Soto, and I had him do a workshop at National Dance Institute, and we’ve talked about him doing some classes at Aspen. There is someone who the boys can totally look up to. Another guy is Peter Boal, [artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet]. He brought part of his company down to Santa Fe about a year ago, and we brought the boys to see what Peter is doing.

What problems disappear or arise when the boys study separately from the girls?

John Grensback: I remember those tough boys’ classes. I think the healthy competition is good. I’ve seen, as a dancer, the ones who think they are better. I’d rather have a good student than one with a superior attitude. They have to enjoy what they are doing and you have to make it fun for them. I disagree with making it so tough on boys mentally that they don’t want to do it. They should feel really good about themselves after doing a class, just because they finished it.

José Mateo: The nature of male competition becomes immediately evident. I am reminded of those National Geographic or other nature programs about male domination and territorialism! A boys’ class becomes a competition almost in the measured sense that scorekeeping accounts for in sports—seeing who can jump the highest, be best at turning, and reign in batterie. These are the hallmarks of accomplishment for boys. It becomes difficult to draw their attention to such things as port de bras, phrasing, and musicality. Certainly Baryshnikov and all the great technicians since demonstrate prowess, but that’s not only what made them great. It’s the ability to integrate all those skills with nuance and subtlety that makes great artists. But it’s hard to get men to focus on those things when they are by themselves.

Jefferson Baum: A big thing in my class is discipline. As a teacher, if you are not in the driver’s seat in a class of boys, forget it! This is how we end class: We do a reverence, and then the boys come shake my hand and thank me, and I will thank them if they did a good job. If they’ve got a lot of energy on a certain day, we do push-ups, but on five counts up and down, and I do the counting. I tell them they need to finish every exercise strong.

Often the boys are beside themselves when the girls come in; they get chatty and start flirting and then they come across the floor to dance and they don’t know what they’re doing. Every so often I single a boy out and tell him, “I know it’s difficult to focus when there are so many beautiful girls in the room.” When he’s singled out, he will calm down.

I tell the boys that they have to focus ten times as much as the girls, because they are often ten times behind them in terms of technique.

Do boys need to begin training by a certain age if they want to pursue a professional career?

John Grensback: I knew a few dancers at Houston Ballet who started as late as 17 and became professional dancers, but they were swimmers or had a significant sports backgrounds. I usually see the boys around age 7 or 8, and I give them much encouragement and tell everyone to keep an eye on the new boy. The boys live for Nutcracker. When they see other boys dancing onstage, that helps, and I suppose that the fact that I am a male teacher also helps. I might tell the father of a female student who also has a boy, “In a couple of years I will have him here in class.” Half of them don’t succeed past six months, but the other half usually make enormous progress.

José Mateo: I look at this in two parts. My first argument is always to convince the parents that the benefit the boy draws from studying ballet outweighs the benefits of having a career in ballet. Answers about career are impossible to predict since the student could be injured the next day and be out of the running, or he could make incredibly fast progress. I always remind parents that it is all relative to the options they have. If the boy has a burning passion for something else, it’s more likely the other passion will result in a career. And that career might have better benefits and less stress. But if ballet is his primary passion, then I encourage him to pursue it.

Several years ago I read somewhere that dancers, on the average, end their careers seven years earlier than they expected to go. So “How long can I go?” is almost a moot question. Make your decisions based on your passion, not predictions that are impossible to make or to rely on.

Jefferson Baum: I started when I was 14. A couple of my great friends started at 18 or 19. But if you ask me the same question about a girl, I would say they should start at age 8 or 9. When the boys start late, they really put the nose to the grindstone because they know that they are behind. Those boys have to get really serious in order to catch up with the women.

What sorts of injuries and other problems need to be looked at from a preventive stance for boys?

John Grensback: We haven’t had many injuries, but I don’t usually have many things where they land on one leg, such as a saut de basque. I keep the boys on two feet. My boys are doing double pirouettes and double tours and they are doing fine. Their backs are fine because they do push-ups and pull-ups. I don’t really stress turnout, because I’ve been through that kind of pressure.

José Mateo: The young body has a certain amount of resiliency, and [the students] are also training their proprioceptive facilities. The most important thing is assessing the boy’s ability to manage turnout. Everyone looks at the range of turnout. But range is less critical than the way the boy manages that turnout, which could be detrimental to the development of the back. Boys generally don’t have the same range or ease of turnout as girls, and boys will force it more. Failing to manage it properly, combined with big jumps where you have the biggest impact on the spine, could result in serious injuries.

Maintaining the alignment of all those parts is critical, and I think is taken a lot less seriously by men. You can’t predict where the problems will turn up, but it’s likely in the ankles, knees, or spine. I always remind men of the level of virtuosity that exists out there. Are we working to exceed that? Because, let’s be realistic—let’s think instead about something that is theatrically engaging. I always encourage them to go to Cirque du Soleil, to see the extremes of what the human body can do. You’ll see those things that are at almost unimaginable levels. But those same people could not do even one phrase in classical ballet.

Jefferson Baum: A lot of boys get injured because they are not prepared to lift a girl, and they try to “brute force” it and injure their backs. I am trying to prevent that by doing heavy-duty physical conditioning in my classes. Lifting weights is injury prevention. The first half-hour of every class we lift weights and do push-ups.

In my case, I was thrown into advanced partnering without preparation. I was 6-foot-1 and weighed about 140 pounds. Of course, they put me with the tall girls. Within the first six months I had a major back injury. Probably knees are the second concern, and I think we can work with turnout not coming from the knees.

Despite many social advances, some people still think ballet is an unbecoming pursuit for a boy. What do you do to help boys and their parents overcome such stereotypes?

John Grensback: You can educate the uneducated very easily. Sometimes the fathers are nervous, and I explain that it just doesn’t make any sense. Ballet can be very supportive of sports and other things the boys like to do. Nutcracker can also change a dad’s attitude. When I was a student in Chicago, I told the boys who called me a sissy, “I am going to do something with my life.” They didn’t know what to say to that!

As a teacher, you get all kinds of boys, in different shapes, sizes, sexual preferences, and whatever else. I have never had any boys tease each other. When they come together, they forget everything else. I have had some feminine boys over the years and I have never had that problem of teasing. It’s a different world we live in now.

José Mateo: Our culture is less homophobic today than it was 30 years ago, and I think for that reason we have more boys in ballet class now. You can’t make generalizations about how appealing ballet is to either gay or straight kids.

However, if boys choose to go into ballet, there is a tradition that puts men into stereotypical roles that are hard to break. There are lifts and partnering that would be difficult to accomplish without those traditional roles. As unimportant as their own orientation may be in terms of pursuing a career or not, boys should know that they will have to be able to “do it all.”

In Europe they enlist boys in ballet before they have any real sexual awareness and just as many boys are brought in to class as girls. Our enrollment here in Cambridge is now 16 percent boys, and that is actually huge, and we have healthy boys’ classes. At a certain level, though, they still have to move in with the girls if they want to get on a serious level.

Jefferson Baum: Half my friends are gay, and I happen to be straight. When the boys see my girlfriend they say, “Wow!” Immediately that puts the fathers at ease, and I hate that! It just shouldn’t be that way. I quote a newspaper article I read some years ago, which stated that if ballet were considered a sport, it would be second only to football in degree of difficulty and injuries sustained.

For the first half hour of boys’ class I don’t play ballet music. I say, “Boys, today I am educating you about music,” and we listen to classic rock. I leave the door open, because you know those fathers are watching their boys!

Recently a father came up to me after one ballet performance and said, “You know every guy onstage is gay.” He said this in front of his son, who lives to dance and works constantly. His father doesn’t think his son can ever make a living doing dance. But then I told him that I have a 500-acre ranch in New Mexico, a condo I sublet in Michigan, an apartment in New York; I drive a Land Rover and a Chevy ’66 Bel Air, and I travel all over the world. I make my point loud and clear.

For more information:
Oregon Ballet Academy: oregonballetacademy.com/boys_program.php
José Mateo’s school: ballettheatre.org/school_ydp.
Jefferson Baum: aspensantafeballet.com/school/faculty_santafe.php; ndi-nm.org/teacherfeature.html
National Dance Institute: ndi-nm.org/our_programs.html

Growing as dancers and gaining independence in summer ballet programs

By McKenna Karnes and Melanie Eccles

Life at Lincoln Center
I never imagined myself going away at age 13 to New York City for five weeks without my parents. When I auditioned for the 2009 summer course at the School of American Ballet, I thought it would just be a good experience to audition; I never thought I would get in. Last spring was the first time I considered going away for ballet summer studies. I remember telling my mom, “There’s no way I’m going away from home for more than two or three weeks my first year.” But when I made it into SAB, I changed my mind. I knew what a great honor it was to be asked to study there and I couldn’t pass up an opportunity that might not come again.

McKenna Karnes (left) never imagined going away to New York City for five weeks to attend SAB’s summer program. (Photo courtesy McKenna Karnes)

I was lucky enough that five other girls from my studio, Chamberlain School of Performing Arts, in Plano, Texas, were going to SAB, four who had been before. It’s always helpful to know someone your first year so you’re never alone. When we first signed in I was nervous about being without my parents for so long, but I knew it would be so much fun.

When my mom, my roommate, and I walked into the dorm, I was shocked. I never realized how tiny dorm rooms are. My roommate and I each had a top bunk with a desk underneath and about four feet in between, a very small closet, and a few drawers, so everything was pretty cramped. But we were living on the Juilliard floors, above SAB, so we got to have a suite, which has a common area where you can hang out and escape the tiny dorm rooms. My suite had three bathrooms and two showers, but everything always needed to be fixed. It was interesting when seven teenage girls and an RA (resident advisor) all had to share one bathroom. I was surprised at how quickly I adjusted to the living spaces and felt right at home. When I returned to Plano, my room felt so big and clean; but surprisingly, I felt homesick for SAB. I really loved being there and I missed the always-exciting lifestyle.

I’m quite the homebody, but five weeks went by so fast. The hardest part was saying goodbye to my mom. I emailed my parents and talked to them every day, so I never felt really far away from them or sad. I had pictures of all my friends, family, and pets on my desk. I missed my mom and dad, but I was having so much fun that I didn’t always think about them.

On the first day of classes I was nervous to see the level of the other girls, since I had never met any of them. After only a few days, I got to know all of them and classes were much more relaxed. I loved having new teachers that saw things that my teachers at home might not have seen. All of them had different points of view and style preferences. The schedule wasn’t too intense: no more than four hours Monday through Friday and only one hour on Saturdays. At home, I have 3 hours of dance per night plus homework and school, so adjusting to SAB’s schedule wasn’t difficult.

What was really amazing was having teachers who knew and took classes from George Balanchine. I have been studying Balanchine style all of my life, but these teachers had words of wisdom directly from Balanchine himself. The classes—character, ballet, pointe, Pilates, and variations—were extremely beneficial. They weren’t particularly challenging as far as steps and choreography, but the teachers pulled as much as possible out of every little step. They wanted the simple things to be perfect before moving on. I guess you could say they wanted quality, not quantity.

I really think my teachers made me more precise with pointe work, improved my turnout, and helped me to gather strength in my arms. It was great to dance next to such talented young girls and try to match myself to their standards. Sometimes I would watch the older girls in the higher levels and that would really inspire me to work even harder.

One of the coolest parts about being at Lincoln Center was that New York City Ballet trains in the same building. I would be in the elevator and Wendy Whelan, Janie Taylor, or Robert Fairchild could be standing right next to me! Seeing NYCB dancers was so inspiring; they are all so talented.

I think I gained a lot of independence through living in New York City for five weeks. We had neighborhood boundaries, but everything we could possibly need was there. I could go shopping in Columbus Circle whenever I wanted to. I always went with two or more people, but we could pretty much do everything without an adult.

I did realize how fast money is spent when I didn’t have my mom to pay for things. This was especially evident in New York, where everything is twice the price as in Texas. It was interesting to have to be self-motivated to clean our room or do the laundry instead of having my mom tell me to do it every time. After I got home, it felt odd to have parents telling me what to do. I missed the independence I had at SAB.

Overall, going away for summer studies was a great experience and I wouldn’t change a thing. I am hoping to be accepted into the program again next summer and improve even more. —McKenna Karnes

Boston Bound
Going to Boston Ballet’s summer dance program in 2008, at age 13, was exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time. I knew I was going to make some great friends over the next five weeks, but a part of me was a little worried.

It didn’t help that I was intimidated by the thought of the amazing dancers I expected to encounter. I was also curious about boarding. Was my roommate going to be nice? Was living on my own going to be hard? And I wondered if I was going to become sick of ballet before the end of the program. (I come from a versatile studio, Melissa Hoffman Dance Center in Hudson, New Hampshire, and study a variety of styles.) Only a few days later I realized I had nothing to worry about.

For a lot of people, going to a five-week camp away from their parents might be frightening. I love my parents very much, but I was already an independent person, which made missing my parents less of a concern. Besides, they were only a phone call away and I was also able to visit them on a few weekends.

As independent as I already was, I came out of the camp even more prepared for living on my own. I learned how to take care of myself and stay organized, which gave me a taste of the reality of going away to college. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, either, because I had my new friends and counselors there to help along the way.

I was lucky enough to get a sweet, outgoing roommate. It’s also important to take a roommate you don’t get along with as a learning experience, since there are always going to be people you have to work with who may not be the most enjoyable people to be around. And you’re not with your roommate 24/7 unless you choose to be.

Still, I had to deal daily with girls whose personalities didn’t mix very well with mine. So I just had to try to stick with the people I enjoyed spending time with. When you’re surrounded by people who share an interest, it’s easy to start a conversation and relate; therefore making friends is simpler than it seems. I had to be myself and open up my personality, and those friends seemed to find me.

Not letting all those amazing dancers intimidate me was hard at first, but I soon realized that no matter how advanced, they are no different from myself. Everyone comes to the program wanting to improve, no matter how flawless their technique is. Instead of being discouraged, I watched the dancers and learned from them. I realized that there will always be people at a higher level than I am, but I also found that a lot of them were about at my level. In the end, it shouldn’t matter whether I’m the worst, or the best; I’m there for myself, to reach my goal, not to impress anyone else.

Going to Boston Ballet exposed me to a whole new world. First, they educated me about the life of company dancers and showed me what opportunities there are for people like me, who are possibly looking to keep dance in our future. I learned about ballets themselves, what it takes to be in a ballet, and even what it takes to be in a company like Boston Ballet.

Second, the dancers I met, from all over the country, taught me a lot about the ways of their dance life. There was even a sweet girl from Japan who barely spoke English (how exciting!). I learned that there are many ways to run dance schools and be exposed to the art of dance. I could take something new from every teacher, whether it was a completely new style or a way of looking at what I was doing with my body. Different teachers explain functions in different ways. Hearing about technique from a variety of people helped me understand it even better.

Practicing ballet over the summer helped me improve, and I was almost given a different mind-set about how to work my body and technique. Though the training was intense, they gave us good breaks and plenty of free time in the evening, so it was easy to energize and adjust. After five weeks of taking class and concentrating on my technique, I came out loving ballet even more. I couldn’t get enough. Becoming tired of ballet was out of the question from that point on.

Everything I learned at Boston Ballet I will be able to take with me the rest of my life, whether it’s technique, work ethics, social interaction, or taking care of myself. Being there was a totally positive experience, but I had to make that happen. I was always taught that whatever you put into a situation, you’ll get that much back. I wouldn’t have improved if I hadn’t worked hard. I wouldn’t have learned about the variety of dance instruction if I hadn’t listened. And I wouldn’t have had this amazing experience if I had let my concerns stop me from going. I pushed through them and got so much out of it.

In the end, I had a blast. —Melanie Eccles

DC Dance Collective’s ’60s sensibility gives teachers freedom and students choices

By Jennifer Kaplan

Some people collect spoons, others, first-edition literary classics, or even Pez dispensers. Nancy Newell collects dance—of all genres—for her eclectic three-studio space in Northwest Washington, DC. With offerings that range from belly dance to Zumba, the three-story walkup is hopping and popping from 9:00 a.m. to midnight, or even later. Newell calls the 11-year-old operation DC Dance Collective (DCDC) because to her, an expert rhythm tapper, “that collective spirit is something I really like. I didn’t want [this place] to be ‘Miss Nancy’s School of Dance’; I’m a team player.”           

Five years ago, Gwoping Yang started as a student at DC Dance Collective; now he teaches two popping classes there. (Photo Photo by Arcadia Creative)

While Newell says tap is her first love, she wants all dance genres to stand on equal footing at DCDC. A tap teacher for 47 years, as of last fall she was teaching an astonishing 32 classes a week at DCDC and various studios in metropolitan DC. So aside from the eclectic decor featuring cushy sofas, a magazine-strewn coffee table, batik throws, and cozy blankets that make the lobby feel more like a living room, DCDC is an anomaly among studios in the region for both its collective approach and its vast offerings.

The schedule features varying levels of break and belly dance, modern, flamenco, capoeira, salsa, hula, ballet, tap, jazz, and Zumba. Newell doesn’t oversee or create a curriculum for her instructors to follow. She’s adamant about allowing her teachers creativity and independence. If that means offering advanced jazz without a beginning jazz class, that’s OK. What DCDC may lack in depth, it makes up for in breadth, including a fall 2009 schedule of more than 70 classes a week.

While Newell directs the studio and a separate nonprofit corporation—DC Artists Collective, which runs workshops, performances, and classes—there’s a 1960s sensibility about the place that has turned many teachers, parents, and students into stakeholders, even true believers, in Newell’s mission. “I don’t want to be in a position where I have to make a judgment about somebody, what they teach, and their style of dance,” Newell says. She values all genres equally, and under her guidance DCDC has become known as one of the most supportive studios for the burgeoning hip-hop and street dance styles in the DC area.

Newell, with her coppery, cropped curls and collection of tap shoes that coordinate with her outfits, notes the kinship that tap, originally a vernacular dance, has with current street forms. And she’s proud of the range of hip-hoppers, b-boys and fly girls, breakers, poppers, and lockers who have found a home base at DCDC. Among them, Boogie Bots, which competed on season 2 of America’s Best Dance Crew, featured teachers from the DCDC family.

“I think it’s cool that this is a studio run by an older white woman who is a tap dancer and there is so much urban dance,” says Ashley Shey, 18, a hip-hop student who volunteers weekly at the front desk in exchange for classes. “I decided tap wasn’t for me when I was younger. Right now I’m interested in hip-hop, and right here are the biggest hip-hop groups in the area, so you can get exposed to so many different groups.”

Karen McLane has been teaching belly dance at the studio since it opened in 1999. Although she has had opportunities elsewhere, McLane, who goes by the name Najwah onstage, remains a popular teacher at DCDC, home base for her company, Ancient Rhythms. “The studio has a very warm, welcoming feel to it,” says McLane, an interior designer. “Nancy is a very generous, inclusive, appreciative person for all forms of dance. She instills a sense of camaraderie. And, although of course she wants to make a profit, it’s clear that her higher goal is to celebrate dance in its diversity. That’s what draws me to DC Dance.”

The studio typically offers classes from 30 or more teachers weekly; some may teach a single class each week, others, half a dozen or more. “One of Nancy’s principles is that if someone has a dance style or new technique that they want to teach,” says Susan Galbraith, a longtime tap student and member of the advisory board, “if there is space and time for them, they can sign on and teach.”

Newell doesn’t oversee or create a curriculum for her instructors to follow. She’s adamant about allowing her teachers creativity and independence.

Galbraith, who oversees a program teaching English to foreign students, introduced her daughter, now 16, to tap. “It’s not like one person runs the whole show; Nancy is obviously the director,” she says. “But there’s much more opportunity for many more forms of dance to be represented and for people to chip in.”

And it’s also a place where anyone, of any age or skill level, is welcome. Five years ago Gwoping Yang took a chance on a few hip-hop classes after spending nearly 30 of his 35 years studying multiple forms of martial arts. “I wanted to find an activity that was a little less prone to injury with the same level of intensity and competition,” he says.

Today Yang teaches two popping classes at the studio and assists behind the scenes with online marketing and publicity. By day a computer database administrator, he says that teaching keeps him connected and giving back to the community that took him in when he was looking for a new experience. “I didn’t anticipate that urban dance would be the next phase for me, but it turned out that it had that same kind of energy and competition. But it didn’t hurt as much.”

Yang, like many teachers, students, and parents, has put in regular hours throughout the year to keep the studio running. He refers to the five or more hours a week he spends on DCDC as his “community service.” Newell is the only full-time employee. The desk assistants work in exchange for classes—every four hours at the desk equals two classes. A part-time bookkeeper manages the accounts and payroll, and one volunteer serves as the operations manager, training all the desk assistants to track class sizes, run credit cards, count heads, and get teachers to sign off on their class enrollment. Galbraith manages the rental schedule for outside rehearsals.

Newell decided early on that as a collective, all teachers, no matter the genre taught or years of experience, would be paid equally according to class size. Teachers receive half of what each class takes in and they must sign off on the attendance sheet to verify that their count matches that of the desk assistant. This means that teachers who market themselves can reap rewards of larger classes and a higher pay rate; Newell says that some of her teachers print and distribute their own postcards or flyers. Others are content with a smaller number of regulars. Students can pay by the class ($17 per one-hour class) or purchase cards of 6, 10, or 12 classes per session, which are discounted accordingly.

Like most studios, Newell’s has seen a drop in attendance over the past 18 months due to the economic downturn. But she still insists that her teachers teach, whether one student shows up, or 20. “I realize that everybody who comes to take a class either left work early, skipped dinner, or got a babysitter, and specifically planned to be here. Their lives revolve around that, so we should honor our commitment,” Newell says.

While the studio has about 300 active students on its books, receipts are down, so the number of classes per week or month they take may have dropped. To make up the gap between class and rental fees and the growing expenses, including a $4,000-plus monthly electric bill, Newell charges an annual registration fee of $15 per student.

Besides teaching and directing at DCDC, Newell choreographs about a half-dozen musicals a year for regional high school and community theaters. It’s rare that she has a moment to plop down on her cushy sofa and put her feet up. “Even though it’s a collective, ultimately the buck stops here,” she says, gesturing to herself. “I know that everybody here can just walk out the door except for me.”

But Newell thrives on the collective spirit she has nurtured at the studio: “I love the fact that I’m not insulated. If I don’t agree with something, it’s not like it’s my way or the highway. Everybody’s philosophy is totally valid.” That’s the DC Dance Collective way.

An exam-based syllabus for teachers and students yields high-level ballet dancers

By Theresa Corbley Siller

“All right, first and second arabesque.” The students at Cuppett Performing Arts Center in Vienna, Virginia, all in level seven (out of eight) in the Cecchetti method of ballet training, have finished stretching and are getting ready for center work. It’s time to steel themselves for an exercise requiring focus and determination.

Cecchetti training is respected all over the world. George Balanchine would occasionally ask his dancers at New York City Ballet—during a Wednesday class, for example—“What were Cecchetti’s Wednesday steps? Let’s do them today!” Even Merce Cunningham—once a student of Margaret Craske, who studied under Cecchetti—wove Cecchetti patterns into his modern-dance choreography, says Pamela Moore, director of the National Ballet School and Company in Crofton, Maryland.

Where it all began
Italian-born Enrico Cecchetti (1850–1928) trained with Giovanni Lepri, Cesare Coppini, and Filippo Taglioni (all students of the great master Carlo Blasis) and made his debut at La Scala in Milan. As a ballet student, Cecchetti frequently corrected his peers, earning him the affectionate title “Maestro.” His natural gift propelled him into teaching, and his classes had a huge following. As a ballet master at the Imperial Theatre (Kirov) and teacher at the Imperial School, he raised the technical level of the Russian dancers dramatically. In 1909 he became the official instructor for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris and later opened a school in London. Among his students were Anna Pavlova, Léonide Massine, Adolph Bohm, Alexandra Danilova, Alicia Markova, Serge Lifar, and Anton Dolin. He danced until 1926; two of his most famous roles were the Blue Bird in The Sleeping Beauty and the Charlatan in Petrouchka.

Recognizing the importance of his work, Margaret Craske and F. Derra de Moroda, two of his longtime students, along with Cyril Beaumont, a dance writer and publisher, recorded Cecchetti’s daily classes on paper. When their work was finished, they had compiled a manual that included adages and allegros for each day of the week. Cecchetti collaborated with Beaumont and Stanislas Idzikowski on A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing: Cecchetti Method, published in London in 1922. After Cecchetti’s death Craske, Derra de Moroda, and Beaumont revised the original manual and later worked on other manuals. Craske and Beaumont collaborated on The Theory and Practice of Allegro in Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method); Craske and Derra de Moroda on Practice of Advanced Allegro in Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method).

Cecchetti’s students learned his set patterns so well that they did not have to think about what came next. With consecutive movements deep in their muscle memory, they were free to concentrate on quality, artistry, and musicality. This system of unique and demanding exercises has produced dancers of extreme competence since 1922, when the Cecchetti Society was formed in London.

With consecutive movements deep in their muscle memory, Cecchetti’s students were free to concentrate on quality, artistry, and musicality.

With a standardized vision for teaching young dancers through adulthood, the Cecchetti Council of America (CCA) was born in 1939. Its president, Sandra Glenn, describes its mission: “The organization uses Cecchetti’s teaching and writings in a sequence of grades, carefully measured as to degree of difficulty and physical development, and provides a system of accredited examinations to test the students’ proficiency within those grades.”

In the classroom
In the real world of teaching this ambitious syllabus to youngsters and teens, teachers must also inject fun into it. In well-run Cecchetti classes, good-natured ribbing shares class time with more serious probings: “What’s the goal of adage?” The students are proud that they can answer: “Slow, controlled movement. Coordination of arms, legs, and head with the music. Fluidity.” Terminology is part of the learning in each Cecchetti level.

Jennifer Meyer, a Cecchetti teacher at Cuppett and at Chris Collins Dance Studio in Alexandria, Virginia, has dedicated her life to ensuring that students learn correct technique and a beautiful style. Meyer, an exam registrar and former chairman of the CCA’s East Coast Committee, has completed six student grades of Cecchetti and seven teacher grades. (There are eight grades for both students and teachers.) Her students consistently get high grades on their Cecchetti exams. “Students of Cecchetti who go on to study ballet at college retain their knowledge of terminology and technique and have never failed to impress their professors,” Meyer says. “They are ahead of their dance peers who never had the opportunity to train in the Cecchetti method.”

Along with the Vaganova and Royal Academy of Dance systems of training, the Cecchetti technique has goals of balanced exercises, mastery, and accountability. For some parents, like Nancy Doyle Groves of Jeffersonton, Virginia, a syllabus is important. “When I was looking at studios for my daughter, Lauren, I wouldn’t even consider one without a specific method of ballet training. Otherwise, how do you know your child is progressively learning everything she needs?”

Teaching ballet with a syllabus is an insurance policy that no skills will be missed in the students’ training. A syllabus avoids overstressing certain concepts in class to the neglect of others; a balanced barre prepares students for center work; progressive exercises warm up students adequately, to avoid injuries. And set daily patterns ensure a balanced week that allows students to build strength. Grades I–IV of the Cecchetti method lay the foundation of placement, strength, and equilibrium that allows students to later tackle the professional work in Grades V–VII and Diploma.

Benefits to students
Lisa Adamson Grau, Cecchetti director at Cuppett, says she sees the benefits in students. “Because the students have a specific syllabus that they are trying to perfect in preparation for an exam, out of that exam experience one can see improvement and beauty in their performance quality onstage,” she says.

Pirkko Sirén Lawlor, a Cecchetti examiner and director of The Ballet Conservatory Dance Centre in Winter Haven, Florida, compares Cecchetti training to learning a language. “[It’s] like studying the language with vocabulary and grammar. With this method, the dancer achieves classical line with sound technique, which is pleasing to look at. Just like a well-spoken language, which is a pleasure to listen to.”

Mastery cannot be achieved in any endeavor without drill. Proper practice supervised by an attentive teacher ensures correct muscle memory, line, and technical proficiency. Pamela Moore of the National Ballet Company and School, a Cecchetti examiner of 30 years, says, “The work in Cecchetti is wonderful if properly taught and in the hands of people who know what they’re doing. Teachers must adapt the work for each individual body they are teaching; students are not all the same!”

Exams
At the end of each dance year, teachers decide who among their students is eligible to be presented for a Cecchetti exam that will qualify them to advance to the next level. At Cuppett, letters are sent to students’ homes each September so that students and parents know that taking the exam after only one year isn’t an automatic step. Typically only three or four students are deemed ineligible each year, and they are notified about six weeks before the exams are administered. If they choose to repeat their level, sometimes they are made “leaders” of their class, helping other students master the terminology and the step order in the patterns.

For the students chosen for Cecchetti’s practical and verbal exams, two examiners—who may be flown in if the local examiners have taught the test candidates—administer up to four days of testing. (The exams get longer as the level of the material advances, starting with 45 minutes for the Grade I exam.)

Students enter the studio in a ballet walk and line up. Each has a number pinned to his or her clothing. Girls wear black leotards and pink tights, with their hair in a neat bun. Boys are in black, fitted pants, white T-shirts, white socks, and black ballet shoes. They then perform the material they have practiced all year and answer questions on dance terminology and theory.

The possible grades are: Retake, Pass Conditional, Pass, Pass Plus, Pass Commended, and Pass Highly Commended. A Retake grade means the student must study the material at her level for another year and try the exam again. Pass Conditional allows the student to begin the next level but requires a two-year wait, not the usual one year, to take the exam for that level. Almost every student tested at Cuppett in the last two years has passed.

The teacher’s role
Accountability is an enormous part of teaching an established method of ballet. Teachers have been trained in the Cecchetti method and have passed the teacher exams; they understand what they must produce in their ballet students. Teacher exams include answering technical questions as well as executing the physical material.

Teachers must be able to convey correct technique and artistry to their students, passing down the knowledge they gained from their teacher training. Teachers whose students do not pass an exam (which rarely happens, because students are closely evaluated before being presented for examination) learn what those students need to accomplish to pass the next time. Detailed comments and corrections are given to each student in writing after their exam.

Meyer insists on quality from her students and she challenges them to correct each other. She demands precision, and so do all teachers and examiners who are members of CCA and Cecchetti USA. CCA, with about 650 members, is the larger and older of the two organizations, though both are dedicated to helping teachers be the best they can be, through continuing education and exams in the teacher’s grade levels, membership meetings, and twice-yearly workshops. At the summertime Special Diploma Intensive and CCA Teachers Seminar at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, examiners, teachers, and students converge from all over the world.

Getting started
Studio owners who want to start a Cecchetti program must first find a certified Cecchetti coach who will instruct them in the Grade I teacher’s syllabus. (The necessary materials—books and CDs—can be bought through CCA.)

Coaches are paid $50 per hour, but sometimes two or three prospective teachers take a coach’s lessons together and split the expense. For Grade I teaching certification, a teacher might take a two-hour coaching session twice a month, with more coaching time required as the exam draws near and as the teacher advances to more demanding levels.

After a year or more of work with the coach, teachers are ready to become candidates for exam. Candidates must have been teaching for three years and have a sponsor as well. Once they have passed, they become members of CCA and are permitted to present students for a Grade I exam. Teachers with strong ballet backgrounds sometimes complete Grades I and II in a single year. They could then teach a Grade III class under the supervision of a Cecchetti-certified teacher and take the Grade III teacher exam at the end of the school year, repeating that process with higher grades as they continue their training.

 The teacher-level exam fee varies from $75 for Grade I to $400 for the top Diploma level, with the proceeds covering the travel and lodging costs of CCA’s traveling examiners.

Many teachers don’t advance to the top tier of Cecchetti training; one whose studies had stopped with the fifth level would be equipped to handle anything but the most demanding pre-professional class. Reaching that level could take seven to nine years.

Being a CCA member in good standing requires participation in at least two Cecchetti workshops per year or one Teachers Seminar (in Michigan) per year. Attendance at meetings and continued study are mandatory.

Teachers who have become Cecchetti converts rave about the method’s results. “The Cecchetti program has improved our students 1,000 percent, not only in ballet, but in their other dance disciplines as well,” says Chris Collins, owner of Chris Collins Dance Studio. “It’s done nothing but help them.”

Young David Alvarez branches out with Billy Elliot—but holds tight to his dream of a ballet career

By Maggie Kneip

Where will young, multitalented, Tony Award–winning David Alvarez go after he leaves the Broadway run of Billy Elliot? You can rest assured it won’t be Disney World. Or another Broadway show.

“David will return to ballet,” asserts Billy Elliot associate choreographer Kate Dunn.

Franco De Vita, principal of American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, where Alvarez trains, says, “David will come back to dance with us full-time.”

And young Alvarez says, “The experience of being on Broadway has been just amazing. But I don’t want to continue with it. My dream is still to be a ballet dancer.”

He may, however, be starring on Broadway a little bit longer. Billy Elliot: The Musical, nominated for a record 15 Tony Awards in 2009, won 10 of them, including a shared award for Best Actor in a Musical for the teens in the title role—Trent Kowalik, Kiril Kulish, and Alvarez. (Alex Ko took over Kulish’s role in October, and a fourth actor, Tommy Batchelor, joined the roster of Billys last March.)

Based on the eponymous British film released in 2000, Billy Elliot boasts a rocking score by British pop icon Elton John and tells the poignant tale of a young British boy from a coal mining town who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. So it would stand to reason that the production would seek to cast young ballet dancers in the role of Billy.

But when they envisioned the musical, the show’s producers knew that for the theater’s seats to be filled nightly, the choreography had to stretch far beyond ballet. With that in mind, choreographer Peter Darling and his associate, Dunn, conducted a nationwide search for three boys with ballet training who could also quickly master tap, jazz, stage combat, and gymnastics, plus learn to sing and act using a Geordie (northern England) accent.

One candidate was Alvarez, the son of Cuban parents, who spent his first eight years speaking Spanish, French, and English and playing football and soccer in Montreal. Aware of her son’s physical prowess, Alvarez’ mother, Yanek, an actress, felt that his skills would be better channeled into the arts and enrolled him in a beginning dance class at Montreal’s Ballet Divertimento. There, according to Alvarez, “I wasn’t really doing ballet. We just sort of walked around.”

But when his father, David, relocated the family to San Diego a year later and 9-year-old Alvarez began taking class at the California Ballet School, his interest in ballet was ignited. Three years later he was accepted to one of ABT’s regional Summer Intensive Programs, in San Diego. According to De Vita, “He was noticed immediately by our ballet mistress, Nancy Raffa, who met with his parents and quickly arranged for him to study with us in New York.”

De Vita was particularly thrilled to be bringing into the JKO School family a talented male dancer as young as 12-year-old Alvarez. “Ideally, we like to bring male dancers into our school at that age. But we tend to get them older, at 15 or 16, when they are more open to studying ballet and their families are more accepting.”

Two years after Alvarez began studying at ABT, the Billy Elliot producers contacted De Vita. “They were looking for three boys to play the lead role,” De Vita says. “We sent David, who was the age they were seeking. But I also knew he would be right for it, and that he was talented and intelligent enough to handle everything performing in a Broadway show requires. Not every young dancer can handle it. David is smart. I knew he could do it.”

The show’s producers, however, needed to be sure. Alvarez was one of hundreds of candidates; an exhaustive search was conducted at dance schools and companies nationwide. A first cut yielding approximately 30 boys was soon whittled down to 15, who then underwent one intense week of acting, dancing, gymnastics, singing and dialect training, and assessment.

Finally, three were selected. Upon learning he was one of them, Alvarez was excited—and relieved. “The only thing I had in my head before they picked me was: Was I going to be picked? Because I didn’t want to do all this other training for no reason. I didn’t want to be a tap dancer or a singer. I wanted to be a ballet dancer.” 

Approximately six months before opening night, the real hard work for the three boys commenced. Dunn says, “For the first three months, we arranged to have each boy undergo training in jazz, tap, gymnastics, acting, and dialect in his hometown, working with the best coaches and schools we could find in those locations.”

Playing Billy takes focus, a tremendous work ethic, and a commitment to technique—and Alvarez says his ballet training prepared him for the role. Even now, he says, “I make sure I get to class, no matter what.” (Photo by David Scheinmann)

David was already in New York, where the other two boys joined him for the next critical three-month period of integration with the entire cast, as well as acclimation to the Broadway rehearsal process.

As the youngster became immersed in preparing for the show’s opening, his parents were worried that he’d be lured away from his dream of becoming a ballet dancer. De Vita says, “When David was first cast, we had a talk with his parents. They were a little concerned in the beginning. But we convinced them that we believed that, after the show, David would come back to us full-time and that he could be back on track with no problem.”

In fact, De Vita sees Alvarez’ involvement with Billy Elliot as a great opportunity for him to grow artistically. “I think it’s very good for a ballet dancer to be a bit more open, and not think ballet is the only dance,” he says. “The tap and jazz that he is now doing greatly enhance his ballet training. Tap is good for musicality; jazz, for coordination.”

Nor did Alvarez’ instructors at ABT worry that his Broadway commitment would cause his ballet technique to deteriorate. “David is so talented, so intelligent, and his training at ABT/JKO has been so classical, so pure. I have no doubt he will always have our training in his body, and he will always be able to come back to it,” says De Vita.

The Billy Elliot choreographers are equally protective of Alvarez’ talent and love for ballet. According to Dunn, “David is a very beautiful ballet dancer. During our entire run we’ve been pleased that he’s been able to keep two parallels running—his Broadway work and his serious pursuit of ballet.”

As the show, which opened in November 2008, moves into its second successful year on Broadway (plus a 2010 national tour), its young stars continue rigorous daily training, which Dunn has jocularly titled “The Billy Elliot Maintenance Schedule.” It includes study of acting, singing, dialect training, acrobatics, tap, jazz, and stage movement—as well as ballet.

In addition, Alvarez makes sure he gets to a ballet class five days per week. “I go to the intermediate class at ABT whenever I can, depending on my schedule. If there’s a day I can’t get there, because of rehearsal or something, I fit in a class at Steps [on Broadway]. I make sure I get to class, no matter what.”

The way Dunn describes the requirements of the role, it seems miraculous that Alvarez can get to ballet classes at all. But, she says, “to do this role, you have to be exceptionally focused—to have an exceptional work ethic. David has it—all the boys have it. The Billy Elliot character has to be on stage for a total of three hours, all the while singing, acting, dancing—using dialect. There is no other show requiring the same commitment from kids.”

And Alvarez claims to feel prepared for the rigors of the role precisely because of his ongoing ballet training. “First, my ballet training prepares me physically, technically,” he says. “If you don’t have good technique going into this role, you might get hurt—get a sprained ankle, stuff like that. Ballet class has gotten—and keeps—my body ready for this.”

Next, he credits ballet for teaching him how to perform on the big Broadway stage. “When you learn ballet as a child, you learn you have to prepare, to be there. Same for Broadway. But there are differences,” he adds. “For example, in ballet I would never turn my back to the audience. There’s much more opportunity to do that kind of thing in theater.”

Finally, Alvarez attributes his capacity for the discipline his role requires to his ballet background. But he cites a pronounced difference here. “In ballet, you must use discipline, no matter what. And your teachers work with you to have it, constantly. In theater, you feel like you work for yourself more.”

Dunn, a former dancer with The Royal Ballet, concurs. “There is nothing as disciplined as being a ballet dancer. It requires complete focus, and that you essentially erase everything else in your life. Your life can only be about ballet.” She adds, “ And that’s a beautiful thing to be able to devote your life to!”

Alvarez, De Vita, and Dunn all seem to agree on one thing: Studying all forms of dance can only be beneficial for today’s aspiring young ballet dancer. Says De Vita, “Take a look at modern dancers today: Most take ballet for complete training. And ABT ballet dancers need to learn how to dance all kinds of forms—including jazz and modern—for our repertoire, which spans from classical to contemporary. I’ve taught at Alvin Ailey, and many of their dancers take class with us at ABT. When you ‘arrive’—when you reach the top of your training, you make a choice. But to be trained a little bit in everything, on top of a solid foundation, is now the way to go.”

Alvarez is proud of his Tony Award, but his eyes really light up when you ask him about his favorite ballets. “Giselle and Sleeping Beauty,” he responds. His favorite male dancer? No surprise here: “Fernando Bujones!” whom the young dancer is already said to physically and technically resemble.

About what’s next, Alvarez claims, matter-of-factly, “I’ll be in the show until my voice breaks. But then,” he adds, smiling, “I’ll go back to ABT full-time. I just love dancing ballet!”

Dancing Across Borders follows Sokvannara Sar’s incredible journey from Cambodia to the U.S.

By Heather Wisner

As a young folk dancer in his native Cambodia, Sokvannara Sar never dreamed of pursuing a professional ballet career; not long ago, in fact, he was unaware that ballet even existed. So how he got from his village to the corps of Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet—with an extended layover in New York City and a side trip to Varna—makes for a remarkable story. Anne Bass has captured it in her engaging documentary, Dancing Across Borders, which came out last summer.

A bold move
The story begins in 2000, when Bass, on a visit to Cambodia, saw Sar perform with a local folk dance troupe entertaining tourists at Angkor Wat. “His performance really struck me,” she says. “He was very musical, with perfect proportions, and full of joy, which is important for a dancer. He was very charismatic onstage. He just stood out.”

Sokvannara Sar demonstrates his elevation as he dances in Benjamin Millepied’s Etude No. 5 (Photo by Erin Baiano)

Sar, called Sy (pronounced “See”) for short, had started dance training in fifth grade, mostly for fun, but later as a way to supplement his family’s income. After his training, he moved on to the performance stage, then to the company. He enjoyed performing with his friends and making extra money for school—“a dollar or two, which would help us with books and pencils.”

Bass thought about Sar long after her trip was over; she believed he deserved greater access to dance training than he was getting. She mulled over the idea of bringing him to the United States to study at New York City’s School of American Ballet (SAB), where she had served as a board member for many years. “In a way, when I look back on this, it surprises me,” Bass says of her involvement. “It’s not something I might usually do; it was like I was being made to do it.”

Eventually, the invitation was extended to him through the World Monuments Fund, which helped sponsor his dance troupe. The WMF, which helped him obtain a visa, told Sar’s family that it could be a good opportunity for him and that he would be in good hands.

“I always heard a lot about America; I saw it on TV and thought it was pretty remarkable,” Sar says. “When someone told me to travel there, I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t think it was going to happen, but I said, ‘OK, I’ll go to America.’ It’s a big move, to go to the other side of the world.”

Culture shock
Sar and his chaperone arrived in New York in May 2000. He thought he had come just to look at SAB, but he wound up staying for the next few years, with Bass as his sponsor, making the school’s dorms and studios his new home.

The situation became complicated almost immediately, as everyone recalls.

“When someone told me to travel there, I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t think it was going to happen, but I said, ‘OK, I’ll go to America.’ It’s a big move, to go to the other side of the world.” —Sokvannara Sar

Bass had brought photos of the 16-year-old Sar to SAB’s offices, but hadn’t mentioned his age to Peter Boal, who was teaching men’s classes at SAB. Boal says he trusted Bass’ eye for dance, but after he and colleague Jock Soto gave Sar his first ballet audition, they were skeptical. The audition “wasn’t a disaster,” Boal says. “He was handsome and well proportioned and he had great elevation. But he was untrained, and we had the language problem. The level of a 16-year-old was just not there.”

Although Sar had dance experience and knew how to charm an audience and respond to music, Boal says, launching him into a professional ballet career was “a one-in-a-million shot.”

Enter Olga Kostritzky, a longtime SAB teacher who retired last summer. “When I first saw him, he was tiny, tiny, tiny. I thought he was 12,” she says. Rather than giving him a ballet audition, she asked him to perform Cambodian dance. “I lift his leg, I touch his foot, and because he is a dancer, he can follow. I tell Anne, ‘He has a good jump, good feet, a good plié. He is musical; he is elegant. I think in a previous life, he was a prince. He makes a statement. He has a presence.’ ”

A compromise was struck: Bass proposed that Sar study privately with Kostritzky over the summer, then see how he progressed.

“It was sort of like My Fair Lady—a good challenge for a great teacher,” says Boal. “She had the time and wanted to take it on. You could see the frustration in the studio, but that’s how you get where you want to go.”

The sheer determination of both dancer and teacher is evident in the film, which features extensive studio footage. If nothing else, the film offers an unvarnished look at the plain hard work it takes to be a dancer. (Sar didn’t speak any English when he arrived, so in addition to studying with Kostritzky, he started English classes through Berlitz.) That summer he also trained at the New York State School for the Arts in Saratoga and at the Rock School in Philadelphia.

According to Kostritzky, their early relationship had its ups and downs. “It was very difficult: He didn’t speak my language, I didn’t speak his language, everything that was beautiful to me was ugly to him,” she says. “When you are a foreigner, you miss your parents, you miss your country, people make fun of the way you speak. I understood him, so we had a bonding experience. We were nice to each other, but it was also rough. Where he comes from, a woman doesn’t tell a man what to do. We talk about, ‘Oh, I miss the food,’ but then I tell him what to do and he becomes a man! We didn’t fight, but it was boot camp, for him and for me.”

Everything seemed difficult to Sar at first. Turning out was a foreign concept and his teachers were frustrated when he didn’t finish combinations. “Olga had to break me a little bit. She would yell at me a lot and I would get mad, so I would try to do better so I wouldn’t get yelled at,” he jokes. But as he improved, he became more enthusiastic about coming to the studio and trying new things. With his teacher’s patience and persistence, he began to enjoy the new dance idiom bit by bit.

“In the beginning I don’t think he liked it; he just wanted to prove to himself he could do it,” Kostritzky says. “But when we went to the center floor, started to jump, do some exercises, I see his interest changed. We motivated each other, actually. I was amazed at the speed he learned.”

Sar especially enjoyed jumping, which he said gave him a feeling of freedom. He began to catch up with his peers. “Olga is the teacher of many professional dancers, so the fact she would spend her time with me was great. It made me work a little bit harder,” he says.

The experience stretched Kostritzky as well. “Every day was an enormous amount of learning,” she says. “It was the biggest, hardest, and most satisfying experience of my life. I have a lot of beautiful dancers, but when you have someone come from the other side of the world—from the moon!—you learn a lot about yourself.”

Transition time
The hard work paid off. In the fall of 2000, with the approval of teachers who evaluated his progress, Sar started at SAB’s Boys 3 level. By January, he had moved up to Boys 4. The next three years brought intermediate training and the year after that, advanced. The visit had turned into an extended stay.

Sar faced both physical and cultural challenges in class. “Poor Sy had some problems with leg cramps, moments where he felt like his legs would freeze,” says Boal. “Sometimes he wanted to do his own interpretation of the combination, and that can be difficult. It comes through on the film—he’s one of the sweetest human beings with good intentions, but he was facing strict pedagogy.”

Bass and Boal noted that Sar did have some natural gifts: a big jump, musicality, stage presence, good proportions, and a very stretched Achilles tendon. (“Cambodians don’t sit on chairs; they sit on their heels,” Bass says.) He also possessed a strong work ethic and a fair amount of grit. When he began training, he was taking class with children half his age, as well as battling culture shock and a language barrier. Besides a rigorous dance training schedule, he had enrolled in the Professional Children’s School. Boal recalls that Sar had high expectations of himself—and was often hard on himself.

“You have to study all these subjects in English, so it was hard, but there are other students there who aren’t too much better than me,” Sar says with a laugh. “I had some English tutor a little bit, but a lot of it was my own studying. I used my own dictionary and stuff like that. Just walking around, I heard a lot.”

To combat homesickness, he spent time with SAB’s director of student life, who took him out for pizza, and visited the Cambodian family of his translator, where he could relax over familiar foods and conversation. Over time, he made friends and began to have a social life. “Everyone breathed a sigh of relief” about that, Boal says. “He’s very likable.”

Bass says that Sar was something of a stoic, working quietly and without complaint. “The hardest thing was not the work, it was the culture,” she says. “It was very isolating and lonely for him. That was the point where I said to myself, ‘What have I done?’ To this day, I don’t know what was going on in his head. I think he didn’t want to disappoint me, which was hard. We had multiple conversations—at the end of maybe four or five years, I was really sure he loved it. I wasn’t sure he loved it at first, but I wonder how someone could do something so well if they didn’t love it.”

Bass and Kostritzky also persuaded Sar that competing at Varna might be a good experience. At first, he balked. “I just don’t like competing so much, and there wasn’t time to prepare much,” he says. “So we decided to go there and just have an experience. But I’m glad I went—it’s a popular competition, it’s a big one, and I think I’m the first Cambodian there. They flew my flag, so that was good. A lot of people would do the same thing but do it differently, so it was interesting. I learned some tricks.”

Sar also managed to visit home, on one occasion performing ballet for many first-time balletgoers at the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. There were surprises on both sides of the curtain. “The first time going back home—it’s really different, really strange,” he says. “You don’t see how things change in the village when you go away so far and come back. You get shocked a little bit. I do get homesick. I just have to remind myself that I have my whole family back there.”

A new life
Toward the end of his advanced classes, Sar began thinking about his next step. “I couldn’t decide at the time if I wanted to stick with it or do it a little bit and go back home,” he said. “But I kept doing it—nobody told me to do it. There was a little bit of pressure, but I decided if it gets too much, I’ll stop. There was some pressure from my family. It’s hard for someone to leave the country; people expect something. But they kept encouraging me, telling me, ‘It’s a good opportunity, so do what you can.’

“I did put some pressure on myself—for me to catch up, I have to do that,” he continues. “At some point, I thought ‘It can’t be too difficult,’ so I kept working myself.” (In an on-camera moment many dancers will recognize, Sar’s parents tell Bass that they’re proud of his progress, although his father says he wishes Sar did something more stable, like taking a government job.)

Sar took as many auditions as he could, said Boal, who at that time was transitioning from teaching at SAB to becoming the artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet. Boal felt that Sar deserved a chance, and made personal calls to directors to plead his case.

But at 5-foot-7, Sar was not the 6-foot-tall romantic lead that many directors were looking for. So Boal invited Sar to try the PNB School for the summer. Sar liked it and was enrolled as a student; eventually, PNB became his next home. “At the end of that year, I didn’t have a lot of boys, so I hired my best girl and my best boy, which was Sy,” Boal says.

So pleased was Boal with Sar’s progress that he offered Sar a job with Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2006; he was promoted to the corps de ballet in 2007. Since then, he has danced a few featured roles—the Sword Dancer doll and Dervish in Nutcracker, the jester in La Sonnambula. He also danced a solo in Benjamin Millepied’s 3 Movements, choreographed at PNB.

Nobody is sure what the future holds. “He has challenges every day in his dancing that he knows about and is working on,” Boal says. “Because of his height, it’s difficult [for him] to partner a ballerina, so he’s hard to cast in some roles. He’ll have to see in the long run if this is the right fit for him. We usually ask if people are interested in doing choreography and he hasn’t expressed that to me. He’s still immersed in learning roles.”

Kostritzky, who periodically speaks with Sar by phone, thinks he just needs a partner his own size. “I told him, ‘Get a girl from the corps and practice the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. It would be good for both you.” She doesn’t think his stature should necessarily hinder him. “He could do the first movement from Symphony in C, Coppélia. He could do the first pas in Swan Lake. He could do a lot of things,” she says.

Sar plans to stick with ballet for the next five years. “I’m also looking forward to going to school and picking up something I’m interested in, so when I quit dancing maybe it will help me,” he said. “I have to think what I like to do, and what is good for the long run.”

Editor’s note: Just as Sokvannara Sar never set out to be a ballet dancer, Anne Bass never intended to be a documentary filmmaker. Dancing Across Borders began as a video record of Sar’s progress to send to his parents back home, then developed into a full-length documentary. It debuted at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival and was shown at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in August and at the San Diego Asian Film Festival in October. Theatrical release and distribution are still in the works.

The beloved ballerina mouse gets a makeover for TV

By David Favrot

Angelina, the ballet-loving mouse, is poised to capture the hearts of a new generation of ballet-loving youngsters as the star of an animated cartoon series that premiered on PBS stations in September.

If you—or your children—grew up with Angelina, much of what you see in the half-hour episodes of Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps will be familiar from the children’s books by Katharine Holabird and illustrator Helen Craig. Angelina (“She’s a dancing star; she loves to twirl all day,” the show’s pop-rock theme assures us) is 8 years old now, but she still lives in Chipping Cheddar, England, with her parents, Maurice and Matilda Mouseling, and her 4-year-old sister, Polly.

(Photo courtesy HIT Entertainment)

She has moved on from Miss Lilly’s ballet school to the new Camembert Academy for the Performing Arts across town, where she studies ballet under the firm hand of Ms. Mimi. Each episode tells two separate stories, separated by a live-action scene that uses young dancers to demonstrate hip-hop, folk, and other varieties of dance.

HIT Entertainment is overseeing the series, targeted at 4- to 7-year-olds, in collaboration with WNET public television in New York and SD Entertainment, which produces the animation. An earlier animated version of the Angelina books was broadcast on PBS in 2002 and 2003.

The creators of the new Angelina Ballerina had several goals for her latest incarnation: They wanted to remain broadly faithful to the style of the books; expand the focus to dance styles beyond ballet; present the dancing as realistically as possible; introduce ethnic diversity in its characters; and make the stories interesting to boys as well as girls.

HIT was well aware of the perils of appearing to tinker with a beloved children’s story, says Karen Barnes, the series’ executive producer and HIT’s senior vice president for development and production. For example, the creative team “had a lot of discussion about changing the locale” of the action from England to the United States to make it more accessible to American kids, Barnes says. “But there were a lot of little girls out there who loved Angelina, and keeping [the characters’] accents was a way of not changing the books too much.”

Holabird and Craig “consulted with us on the design and the characters, and they gave us notes on the scripts,” says Barnes. “We didn’t want to lose what was essential about the characters.”

At the same time, in order to broaden the show’s appeal, “we have two male characters who joined the cast, Marco and A.Z.,” Barnes says. Marco is a student from tropical “Costa Mousa” who loves soccer and playing the conga drums, while A.Z. is a recent arrival from a big city who lives for hip-hop and adopts a cool-guy attitude. “The idea was to make Camembert more of an international school.”

Each episode tells two separate stories, separated by a live-action scene that uses young dancers to demonstrate hip-hop, folk, and other varieties of dance.

The live-action sequences in each show also provide ethnic diversity. In one, Kenichi Ebina, a Japanese student, demonstrates hip-hop moves and talks about his interest in the genre.

The producers’ commitment to dance realism made other innovations necessary. For one thing, Angelina herself got a makeover: In order to allow the realistic depiction of ballet steps, her legs have been made longer and more like a human’s, and her tummy is smaller. She doesn’t go on pointe, though—she’s too young. And she still has a mouse tail.

Though the Angelina episodes are pure computer-generated animation, “all the dances you’ll see in the show were originally live dances, done by dance students,” says Barnes, who studied dance as a child and took ballet and modern dance in college.

To ensure that musical details are accurate, scripts are sent to consultant Wendy Sims, a professor of music education at the University of Missouri. Sims suggests appropriate music for various styles of dance and checks such details as how a character is holding a bass fiddle and whether the fingering of an animated pianist matches the music on the soundtrack. In one episode, she says, a pianist supposedly playing a classical score looked like somebody banging out ragtime. She spoke up, and the animation was adjusted.

Beth Bogush is one of the show’s dance consultants. She’s a former teacher at Boston Ballet School and former co-director of the junior division of the Ailey School in New York who now runs a nonprofit with her husband that provides dance entertainment to military families at bases around the country.

Bogush’s resume includes choreographing for the Nick Jr. animated children’s series The Backyardigans. “My job was to research the dance that would be appropriate, given the characters’ size and proportions,” she says. “I went back to the Ailey School, and the dancers we used in The Backyardigans were all from the school. We had one dancer for each character.” She has drawn on that experience since Barnes approached her to consult for Angelina Ballerina, she says. (“Yes, I loved the book series,” Bogush says. “I read them with my daughter when she was young, and I incorporated [the books] into my curriculum at Boston Ballet and at Ailey.”)

“I kind of have a sense of what works and what doesn’t” in animated dance, says Bogush. Among the things that don’t work: Having a character turn her back to the camera; having the camera move around a character in a circle; and some ballet steps, like bouréeing in place, with small, rapid changes of weight that would be hard to animate and hard to follow on a home television’s shrunken scale. “One limitation is the size of the characters’ bodies—that’s a real challenge sometimes,” she says. Her role has grown beyond dance consulting: “Now I am starting to choreograph specific dances, and I’ve been reviewing the music,” she says.

Bogush feels strongly that the animated Angelina Ballerina won’t be a for-girls-only show. “One of my main concerns as a dance educator for 25 years has been to get boys interested in dance. I think we’ve expanded [the show’s appeal] with such great stories. It’s a chance for kids of every ethnicity to see someone like themselves,” she says, noting the addition of Marco and A.Z. “There’s athleticism in it. There’s power and confidence. I really feel like it’s something that brothers and sisters could sit down and enjoy together.”

 That may well happen. But a representative episode holds far more appeal for girls: Angelina has her friends Vici and Gracie stay for a sleepover, during which the girls make glittery hats for the Silly Hat Carnival but get into trouble because they stay up too late.

Consultant Nicole Hill, an expert in hip-hop, jazz, and lyrical dance, contributes choreography and checks that the dance movements in Angelina Ballerina are age-appropriate for the characters. She teaches at the Dallas Power House of Dance and has provided choreography for Barney and Friends and the dance squad of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. Hill, 28, is a big fan of the Angelina book series: “I feel like it’s the ballerina’s favorite gift to get,” she says.

Storyboards or early versions of animated sequences are sent to Hill’s home computer, and she checks the dance details. (There’s a running time count on the screen so she can specify where changes are needed.) One challenge, she says, is that technical dance terms would be lost on the animators, so “I definitely have to describe what I want” in everyday language. The episodic work takes about four hours of her day, she says.

On one sequence she reviewed, “it was a hip-hop scene and it didn’t look hip-hop. The costumes and everything else were fine; it was just the steps. If you wouldn’t do it as a real dancer, you can’t do it in animation,” she says.

For more information, visit angelinaballerina.com. Check local listings for broadcast times.

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
Often parents live their lives through their children. I have frequently heard a mom say, “We have started pointe work,” as if the mother were also in pointe shoes. Children will progress more in their studies when parents are not so involved.

Parents should be able to view classes only at designated times. (I suggest once a semester.) All contact with parents should be through email or mail, and discussions with the teacher or director should be by appointment only.

Tip 2
When parents feel that their children are superior to their classmates, you must help them learn to trust your judgment. Explain that class placement is determined by what is best for the child and that students make more progress when they are comfortable instead of struggling to keep up. Parents must learn that progress in ballet is measured not by the number or complexity of the steps but by the training of the body to perform more demanding technique later.

What competing did for the careers of four ballet dancers

By Nancy Wozny

We often think competition kids are heading for Broadway or commercial regions of the dance world. Not always so. Four leading ballet dancers discuss their early competition life, sharing what they learned and how those experiences shaped the dancers they became.

Melissa Hough, Boston Ballet
Boston Ballet soloist Melissa Hough has been wowing audiences with her performances in ballets from Swan Lake to Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room. Now in her sixth season with the company, she finds that her extensive competition and jazz experience as a teen comes in handy in working with certain choreographers.

Hough began her training in a small non-competition school. After a short time she wanted to be pushed more, so she headed off to a competitive studio in Glen Burnie, Maryland, where she competed with Dance Xplosion and New York City Dance Alliance. “I consistently scored high and won several junior teen and senior outstanding dancer awards at nationals over the years,” she says.

She was lucky that her studio valued ballet and had several former Kirov teachers on faculty. At 13, she entered the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC, and for a while tried to simultaneously keep up her ballet and competition life. “We worked it out with my jazz studio so that I would come on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays,” says Hough. “It was difficult because I was always going and never had a day off.”

“So often ballet dancers only train in ballet,” says Hough. “Some things that are stressed in the jazz/comp world can be very useful, like learning quickly.” She recalls the intensity of learning at the conventions that often accompanied competitions. “If you didn’t learn the combination right away, you were left in the dust. It was much more like a Broadway audition,” says Hough. “Also, you had to be able to perform right away and make it different than the other hundred or so people in the room.”

Learning to make your mark in a huge group informed Hough’s approach to coping in a big ballet company. “Having been through that rigorous work ethic of competitions helped me tremendously when it came to people watching me in class and navigating the ballet company world,” she says. “I learned more discipline at my jazz studio than I sometimes see in professional companies, and I think it has helped me to stand out in certain ways.”

Jazz dancing is all about being distinct either through musicality or style. Hough remembers learning Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo’s highly idiosyncratic ballet Brake the Eyes. Elo’s style, with oddly angled shapes and quick shifts of weight, was not such a foreign land for Hough’s body. “There’s some funky movement in his dances,” Hough says. “His stuff feels a bit like breaking, popping, and locking.”

The in-your-face approach of William Forsythe’s in the middle, somewhat elevated provided another opportunity for Hough to draw from her competition experience. “We had to learn the Forsythe piece really quickly and then do it,” she says. “It was a ‘nail it the first time’ experience. I think all the time I spent at conventions and competitions helped me get it right the first time out.”

Today Hough reflects on her competition experience as both valuable and problematic. “It’s much more about quantity than quality, and quantity seemed to always win. The difference is that in the competition world, many teachers care mostly about how many times you turn in a pirouette or how many tricks can fit into a three-minute routine,” she says. “In the ballet world the quantity is not so much a focus, but a goal you might personally set for yourself after you’re able to lift your leg properly to 90 degrees with the correct port de bras and coordination. There is much more refinement and understanding of the body in ballet before you can begin to think of the quantity.”

Today, Hough feels like a much more nuanced dancer who has made the most of her versatile training. She has some concerns about what has happened in the competition world since she left. “Punching everything and giving too much all the time feels kind of fake,” she says. “And the training is not preparing kids for what is out there in the real dance world. In some ways it’s become its own world that is disconnected from the field.”

Hough also feels there needs to be more emphasis on ballet training, which often gets short shrift in the comp world. “Dancing has to be about larger concerns than winning, which can skew one’s thinking. It’s great that kids are passionate about an art form, but at the end of the day they need to know why they are doing it,” she says. “It’s great to have that rawness that makes you stand out, but you need to have strong technique to make it in the professional world.”

Perry credits his highly knowledgeable teacher and frequent Dance Studio Life contributor, Diane Gudat, for his solid training in jazz dance and a smooth ride on the comp roller coaster. “She’s so smart, and a stickler for details,” Perry says. “I was taught to always create a story in my dancing and I am always bringing that in, even in ballet.” And he found that the sheer amount of performance experience made competing worthwhile. “I learned how to perform and connect to the audience.”

Perry finds his background useful in making his mark on McIntyre’s hard-to-classify style. “I learned to really move through space on the competition stage, to go that extra little bit and pull it out of nowhere,” says Perry. “It’s all about standing out.”

As a choreographer, McIntyre is interested in what his dancers add to his movement; it’s a co-creative process. “I like to add a little spice to it,” says Perry. “If he doesn’t like it, he will tell me. Sometimes I need to calm down; he’s very honest, but also is very interested in what I am going to do with his movement.”

McIntyre’s Leatherwing Bat, set to “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul, and Mary, is just such a piece. “I pulled my training into this piece,” he says. “Sure, there are ballet moves in the piece; it’s classical ballet with a twist, and that twist is up to me.”

Barette Vance, Pennsylvania Ballet
Barette Vance loved every bit of her competition experience. Now a soloist at Pennsylvania Ballet, Vance dances a varied repertory that includes such ballets as John Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew, George Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and The Four Temperaments, and Matthew Neenan’s 11:11.

Starting with creative movement in her toddler years, Vance entered the jazz, hip-hop, and lyrical world at age 6. She started competing in fifth grade with Starpower Talent Competition, Showbiz National Talent, and others at the now-closed Saddleback Dance Center in Mission Viejo, California. Competitions were all about jazz to Vance. “I had so much time in front of a crowd, and all that jazz training really helped with developing performance qualities,” says Vance, 25. “By the time I entered summer programs at the School of American Ballet, I had a lot more experience than others starting out. Competitions really make you focus on expressing yourself as an artist.”

“I had so much time in front of a crowd, and all that jazz training really helped with developing performance qualities.” —Barette Vance, Pennsylvania Ballet

Vance competed until she turned 14 and became a serious ballet dancer. She appreciated her background when it came to learning and performing Pennsylvania Ballet resident choreographer Matthew Neenan’s tricky ballets. “He doesn’t want you to look like a ballerina in his dances; he wants you to hit the movement hard but still keep a very organic and earthy quality,” says the Laguna Hills native. “A lot of ballerinas have trouble making contact with the ground like you do in hip-hop. It’s very good to have a varied background because choreographers are not all classical these days.”

She admits that she still tries to sneak out for jazz classes from time to time. “It comes back to me very easily.”

Vance enjoyed judging at Starpower last summer. “It was a great experience and taught me a lot. There was so much talent and it was really hard to decide what I thought was best. The judges have a hard job, but at the same time it’s so exciting to see all the great dancers,” she says. “The one thing that has stayed with me about judging was that everyone has their own opinion and taste, and just because you think someone or something is the best doesn’t mean the next person will agree. That’s what makes this job so exciting.”

Jessica Collado, Houston Ballet
Jessica Collado, a newly promoted demi-soloist with Houston Ballet, treasures her time spent in jazz classes and competitions. From dancing the role of the showgirl in Stanton Welch’s ode to Gershwin, The Core, to her gutsy performances in Welch’s earthy homage to the Australian pioneers, Red Earth, Collado adds pizzazz to everything she does. She also drew on her training for the pounding beat of Welch’s all-women powerhouse, Mediæval Bæbes. 

Collado attended more competitions than she can remember, including Tremaine Dance Conventions, Starpower Talent Competition, L.A. Underground Dance Convention, and StarQuest. At first she studied jazz and ballet, but when her father got transferred to Atlanta she decided to focus on ballet and gave up competitions. “Competitions were fun because it was a chance to see the talent of other dancers in your age range. I always wanted to see how I compared to other dancers; it gave me perspective as to how I was progressing and improving,” says Collado. “They also were always in fun cities and you got to travel with your friends.”

Named one of “25 to Watch” in 2009 by Dance Magazine, Collado prides herself on her versatility; she is often selected by visiting contemporary choreographers. “My jazz background is hugely beneficial to my dance career. Today, companies require dancers who are strong in both classical and contemporary technique,” she says. “I feel that many of the specialty roles I’ve been privileged to dance have come about because I stood out in contemporary work.”

Collado, like the others, benefited from the hours of performing, and the hard work of getting ready for competitions gave her a taste of life as a professional dancer at a young age. Often in several entries in one competition, from solos to group pieces, Collado had to make sure she was totally prepared.

“I also developed stage presence,” she says. “Going onstage in front of hundreds is nerve wracking as it is, but knowing that you are being judged on your technique and artistry is a lot to handle. You can’t just dance the piece; you have to perform it and stand out among the rest.”

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
In teaching pirouettes it is important to emphasize using turnout. On relevé the supporting leg must retain turnout with the working leg placed so that the toe is just below the knee of the supporting leg. The turned-out working knee acts like a rudder of a ship, steering the way around.

Tip 2
The arms must also be used correctly. For en dehors pirouettes, with the preparation taken from fifth or fourth position, the arms should begin in third. Remind the students that they will turn toward the front arm and that the side arm must not go behind the shoulder.

To teach correct arm placement during the turn, have the students hold an object in the hand of the side arm. As they turn, they switch it into the other hand.

During the turn, the arms should be in first position and slightly shortened (closer to the body), with a feeling of width at the elbows. (People who have broad shoulders turn more easily than those with narrow shoulders.)

The Performance Awards bring teacher education and scholarships to Tel Aviv and beyond

By Mignon Furman

From my balcony at the Tel Aviv Hilton, I watched swimmers, surfers, and the waves of the Mediterranean Sea lapping on the beach below. In Israel for the Performance Awards, my program to encourage and evaluate ballet students, I looked out on this city of contrasts. Its skyscrapers towered over older apartment buildings built on concrete stilts, with bomb shelters in their basements and solar panels on their roofs. I could see the nearby marina, and the biblical Jaffa in the distance.

In the cool evening breeze, all seemed peaceful. But in Israel, suicide bombers might attack anywhere. For security, bags are inspected at stores and cinemas. There was a checkpoint on the approach to the Hilton; a security guard inspected the trunk of our car. At the hotel entrance, I was frisked with a metal detector and told to open my purse for inspection. On my return to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem, the police pulled our car over for a random inspection.

By Mignon Furman

In traveling to many cities on my audition tour, I have become more aware than ever of many young dancers’ inability to turn well. Look for more tips on improving this aspect of technique next month.

Tip 1
The first thing dancers must understand is that to turn, one must be able to balance. Therefore at the end of barre exercises, teachers should introduce the concept of balance through the understanding of weight placement. Have the children practice rising onto demi-pointe with all toes evenly placed on the floor, hips over fully stretched knees, shoulders over hips, and the weight forward over the balls of the feet.

Tip 2
Practicing the use of the head and eyes in spotting is important. Have students shuffle around quickly, keeping the feet together with legs parallel, or skip around. Introducing turning steps at a fairly young age helps students grasp the feeling of turning. Changement, soubresaut, and échappé are a few steps that can be turned; young children can accomplish quarter- and half-turns.

Former ballerina Violette Verdy takes a multifaceted approach to teaching

By Steve Sucato

“Everybody needs to be in a room with Violette Verdy,” says Patricia McBride, Verdy’s fellow former New York City Ballet star and longtime friend. “She is like sunshine.”

Verdy’s effervescence and unwavering positivity have come to characterize not only her personality but her approach to her life and career. While her successes as a performer, author, and administrator have been many, it is perhaps her career as a dance educator and coach that has proved the most far reaching and enduring.

“In a way, I learned to teach when I was learning to dance,” says Verdy, now a distinguished professor of ballet at Indiana University in Bloomington. “When your teachers are really great, they are teaching you to be a teacher.”

Verdy, here teaching at the School of American Ballet in October 2008, describes her approach as a mixture of everything she has learned, with an emphasis on Balanchine’s teachings. (Photo by Rosalie O’Connor)

Verdy was born Nelly Armande Guillerm in Pont-l’Abbé, France, on December 1, 1933, to a shopkeeper father (who died when she was a year old) and a schoolteacher mother. She survived childhood illness and the German occupation of France during World War II to become an icon in the dance world and one of France’s greatest exports (see “Verdy’s Fast Stats”).

A former dancer with Roland Petit’s Les Ballets de Paris, London Festival Ballet, La Scala, and American Ballet Theatre, Verdy is best known for her two decades (1958–77) as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet (NYCB). A former director of Paris Opera Ballet and Boston Ballet, she also choreographs and has written several books, including two for children.

Of Verdy’s numerous teachers, she credits Carlotta Zambelli, a Milanese ballerina who danced with La Scala and the Paris Opera, and Madame Rousanne Sarkissian, a pre-revolution Russian dancer and teacher, as her greatest early influences. “They broke down ballet exercises into their component parts and reconstructed them gradually to get to more difficult tests and results,” says Verdy. “You were made to understand what you were doing and why you were doing it, giving you full command of each element that made up a step or phrase.”

It is Madame Rousanne’s positive demeanor as an instructor that Verdy most emulates in her teaching approach. Add to that the incomparable influence of Balanchine, and the seeds were sown to make Verdy one of the most sought after and respected ballet teachers working today.

Verdy says she takes a non-imposing approach to teaching, preferring to bring out the qualities of her students through suggestion rather than force her will on them. “I give them the pleasure of discovering what they have if they do not know it, and if they do, how to use it and how important it is,” she says. “As teachers, we are only like midwives—we deliver.”

Verdy sees ballet as a calling and those students who come to it as deserving of kindness and nurturing. “Ballet, or anything else a student might be doing, is only an attempt at self-realization and happiness,” she says. “[Students] want to be loved, recognized, admired, and respected. If they choose ballet to get that done, they want to be treated well, because ballet is a very hard road to take.”

“There is lots of love and good spirit in her classes,” says Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, another New York City Ballet alum and the director of the Chautauqua [NY] Institution summer dance program, where Verdy taught for 19 years. “She is an amazing communicator and is as comfortable teaching at Chautauqua as she is at the Bolshoi or Royal Ballet schools. Her classes are so well constructed and have so much purpose.”

A good ballet school is a cross between West Point and a seminary, Verdy recalls the late New York City Ballet co-founder Lincoln Kirstein saying. “He is exactly right,” she says.

While Verdy does not impose a dress code in her classes—she prefers to take her students as they are and as an expression of who they are, as long as they can be seen properly—she believes that “ballet is law and order.” Consequently she also believes in a strong work ethic and obeying proper rules in executing ballet exercises.

“In-class tension is very negative, but intensity is very desirable,” says Verdy. “Intensity is concentration, talent, and the control to do work that obtains a legal result, [which comes from obeying the rules]. When dancers have it too easy, their training tends to not carry weight, depth, or consistency. When they are challenged, something deeper comes.”

Like many of her own teachers, Verdy teaches the core elements of ballet, breaking them down and relating to her students the reasons for them.

“She will give us very simple ballet exercises that work on technique,” says 20-year-old Juliann Hyde, a third-year ballet major at Indiana University. “They are so simple that they are almost hard for us, because they require so much concentration.” Verdy also believes in training dancers to be great artists as well. Says Hyde, “She brings out our artistic side. Sometimes people are more interested in who can do the most turns or lift their leg the highest. She helps us see that there is much more to ballet than that.”

“In a way, I learned to teach when I was learning to dance. When your teachers are really great, they are teaching you to be a teacher.” —Violette Verdy

Verdy describes the style she teaches as a mixture of everything she has learned, with perhaps an emphasis on Balanchine’s teachings. But music is at the foundation of her signature teaching style. “I danced because of the music,” she says. “It is my number-one subject and what I rely on in my classes to teach timing.” She likes to use a wide variety of music in her classes, which she says is enjoyable for her, her students, and her accompanist. “If I have a good pianist in class, we go to town,” she says.

Verdy’s approach to teaching is like that of a chef, says Bonnefoux. “She comes to class as if to prepare a great meal with a little bit of this and a little of that.” According to McBride, Bonnefoux’s wife and a Chautauqua faculty member, Verdy calls it “cooking up a class.”

Food analogies and metaphors are commonplace in Verdy’s classes, says former student Carrie Burns Frase. “She would tell us to ‘whip our eggs,’ referring to the way she wanted us to do a double rond de jambe en l’air, and that the physicality of a plié should be chewy, like fondue.”

And when Verdy isn’t describing ballet exercises along gastronomical lines, she conjures up equally descriptive images for her students, such as describing the angle of the head as “resting it on a pillow and showing your little cheeks.” By saying, “Ride high on your horse,” she emphasizes that the effort happens from the waist down and that the upper body should appear calm.

“She uses language fully in painting mental pictures for her students,” says Michael Vernon, chair of the Department of Ballet at Indiana University.

Verdy takes a hands-on approach to “cooking” in her classes, guiding students with touch as well as with her voice. “There is compassion in the way she holds a hand or places one on the shoulder of a student,” says Bonnefoux. “That physical contact with the students makes the information pass.”

NYCB ballet master in chief Peter Martins once told Verdy that she was like a good detective in that she could see dancer talent sooner than most. “I am a really good scout for talent,” says Verdy. “I can see it in two seconds, as well as the character of a dancer. This is one of the things that helps me to go to the things they need sooner.”

For Verdy, talent is literally “the entire atmosphere the person has.” The game, she says, is that often the best talents don’t come in bodies with the most facility; that is when dance instructors have their work cut out for them. “If dancers did not have challenges, they would not be great,” she says.

The 75-year-old Verdy’s detective instincts have led her to believe that ballet as an art form may be in danger. She sees a shift in tastes, increasing demands on people’s time, and changing attitudes as threats to ballet’s future. “I need to teach as long as I can because people are getting lazier all the time; they do not want to work that hard, and probably ballet is not going to survive,” says Verdy. She does feel, however, that as long as audiences want to see ballet, there will be people to carry on its beauty and tradition.

As much sought after as a coach as she is as a teacher, Verdy brings to the rehearsal studio the same effervescence and passion she brings to the classroom. Whether it is helping students or professionals tackle a Balanchine masterwork or one of her own works, Verdy believes that good coaching lets dancers become unique in what they are doing. “You don’t put on them what you do [as a dancer]. You encourage them to discover who they are and to be who they are,” says Verdy. “People think coaching is telling them what to do and forcing them to do something that is unnatural to them. It is the complete opposite.”

Whether teaching or coaching, Verdy exudes wisdom that is recognized by many who work with her. It is the wisdom that comes with decades of learning from and working with great teachers, choreographers, and dancers. It is also the wisdom to put the needs of those who look to you for guidance first and to treat them with dignity, caring, and respect.

“I think Violette is an icon,” says Vernon. “She is the spirit of ballet.”

Verdy’s Fast Stats

• Roles created include George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (1960), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1962), and Jewels (1967); Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering (1969) and In the Night (1970)
• Director of Paris Opera Ballet 1977–1980
• Co-director of Boston Ballet 1980–82; director 1983–84
• Honors include the French Order of Arts and Letters, a 1967 Dance Magazine Award, and most recently, France’s highest decoration, Chevalier (Knight) of the National Order of the Legion of Honor
• Books: Of Swans, Sugarplums and Satin Slippers: Ballet Stories for Children; Giselle of the Wilis; Giselle: A Role for a Lifetime (co-author); Getting Started in Ballet: A Parent’s Guide to Dance Education (with Anna Paskevska)
• Films: The French feature Ballerina (1949); and two documentaries, Violette et Mr. B (2008) and Violette: A Life in Dance (1982)

A new DVD, Violette Verdy: The Artist Teacher, due to be released July 29, will give everyone the opportunity to “be in a room” with Verdy and experience her personality and teaching style. The 40-minute video, recorded at the Chautauqua Institution and directed by Nefin Dinç and produced by Sara Lundine, features a look at Verdy’s career, footage of her in the studio, and interviews. It will be available through the Chautauqua Institution’s bookstore and online from vaimusic.com.

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
What age to start pointe work? This is a question frequently asked by teachers, and my advice is not before 10 or 11 years of age. But the most important criterion is not the age of the dancer but her strength. Are the ankles strong? Are the muscles around the knee stable? Can the child hold her body correctly with the weight over the three points of the foot (big toe, little toe, and heel)?  

An important factor in developing strength is how many lessons the child takes per week. My preference is to put on pointe only those children who take a minimum of three classes per week.

Tip 2
Once a child is ready to start pointe work, the teacher must make certain that the pointe shoes fit correctly: too big, and friction can cause blisters; too tight, and dancing with cramped toes (instead of relaxed toes that lie flat in the shoe) can cause injury to the Achilles tendon. A good, knowledgeable shoe fitter is a necessity.

The center, not the barre, is the optimal place for learning to turn

By Vanina and Dennis Wilson

If classical ballet instruction can be said to have a Golden Rule, it might be “Begin at the barre.” Classes begin at the barre, where students learn to perform a step competently before they attempt it in the center. Most instructors follow this rule in teaching pirouettes; standard instruction books such as Gretchen Ward Warren’s Classical Ballet Technique (pp. 141 and 177) advocate the practice of half-turns with relevé in retiré at the barre (while recommending that beginners execute one full pirouette in the center).

Note the position of student Elle Wagner’s feet relative to the blue tape prior to beginning a half-turn pirouette. Her right elbow is roughly 7 inches from the barre. (All photos courtesy Vanina and Dennis Wilson)

Elle is beginning to rotate en dehors. The right foot remains in the same position relative to the tape mark on the floor.

However, we would argue that the “begin at the barre” rule does not apply to teaching pirouettes. We started teaching pirouettes conventionally at the barre but observed that students’ apprehension about catching the barre at the end of the move led them to neglect other aspects of technique, such as spotting or turnout. We also saw them make adjustments when closing the half-turn at the barre that resulted in sloppy closings of the same turns in the center.

These observations led us to question the conventional practice of beginning pirouette instruction at the barre. Even though this teaching method is “common wisdom,” more teachers may be avoiding it than many people believe. We have observed many ballet classes in which students did not perform pirouettes at the barre and have noted that Cecchetti- or French-trained instructors are less likely than others to teach this way.

However, we agree that learning the positions and moves in preparation for the pirouette should occur at the barre. These include the correct balance of the whole body, first on one flat foot, then on demi-pointe; the pulling of the working leg into retiré (the pirouette pose); and the relevé drills.

Elle has come approximately three-quarters through the half-pirouette and has caught the barre with her left hand. The middle of her right foot is now over the tape mark on the floor and her knee is already very close to the lower barre.

Elle has finished the half-turn. Note how close her knee is to the barre. If she holds her leg slightly too low, it will hit the lower barre; slightly high and it will hit the upper barre.

Elle has closed in fifth position, and her right foot now straddles the blue tape and her arm is too close to the barre. To maintain the distance she had at the beginning of the turn, she would have to adjust her feet when closing fifth position, an undesirable movement.

But if the barre is a place to acquire balance, it is not the venue in which to gain skill in turning. When it’s  time to start rotation on one foot on relevé, move your students to the center.

What’s wrong with teaching pirouettes at the barre? A major problem is that beginning the turn,  especially the  half-turn portion, of pirouette instruction at the barre may  induce unnecessary technical adjustments and create undue anxiety, resulting in flawed and sloppily performed pirouettes when students move to the center.

Technical adjustments
Students who are practicing half-turns en dehors or en dedans must move either toward or away from the barre a distance approximately the length of their standing foot. When they close into fifth position, this change in foot position requires an adjustment in order for them to remain a comfortable distance from the barre. By contrast, half-turns in the center require no such adjustment; but students accustomed to making them at the barre may continue to perform them out of habit.

Students may have difficulty shedding anxieties and bad habits acquired at the barre when they begin practicing pirouettes in the center.

In turning at the barre, students must make another technical adjustment, with their arms. Since they depend on the barre to maintain their balance, at the end of the turn they must open the arm nearest the barre in order to catch it before the end of the rotation. This habit becomes counterproductive when students move to the center, since there they should keep their arms still (usually in first position) during the pirouette, to prevent arm motion from disturbing their balance. Students who are accustomed to opening their arms to catch the barre may continue the habit in the center, resulting in unbalanced turns.

The importance of self-confidence
Early pirouette practice should increase students’ confidence in their ability to turn, but those who begin pirouette training at the barre may develop a fear of colliding with it or even with the wall behind it. This fear can cause the students to pull away from the barre, lose control of the turn, stop the rotation before its completion, and hold their working leg too low during the turn. The loss of control may create additional anxieties and result in a mental block that inhibits any rotation at the barre, and later in the center. Students may have difficulty shedding anxieties and bad habits acquired at the barre when they begin practicing pirouettes in the center.

Students may also fear failing to catch the barre at the end of the rotation, which can cause them to lose their balance or even fall (although the latter is rare). They need not only catch the barre but also do so properly, with the “catching” arm slightly forward of the shoulder. If the arm is too far forward or (more likely) too far back, students have to adjust their balance vis-à-vis the barre.

When to use the barre
More advanced students who have mastered pirouette basics can profitably practice some forms of pirouettes at the barre, especially in anticipation of partnering, with rotation finished on one foot in attitude, with a développé or even retiré. These students will be able to adjust their balance at the pirouette’s end so that they can hold the final position. Another useful form of rotation at the barre is the preparation for fouetté turns en dehors and en dedans, which permits students to better control the passage of the working leg à la seconde. This “suspension” of the working leg à la seconde results in pleasing-looking fouetté turns in the center.

Optimizing learning
Beginning pirouette instruction at the barre can inhibit the development of real turning skills and can easily result in more harm than good. The pirouette is an intricate, compound movement that joins several techniques into one application; instructors need not add obstacles by beginning instruction in a second-best place, where learning can be compromised.

However counterintuitive it may seem, the center is the best environment for the first crucial practice of the quarter- and half-turns that begin the pirouette, because it has no obstacles and places the student where the pirouette belongs. Sometimes, the best place to learn swimming strokes is in the middle of the pool!

The story of traditional dance in classical and neoclassical ballets

By Theodore Bale

Dances from other cultures are often described, in today’s politically correct language, as “world” or “ethnic” dance. But scattered throughout many classical ballets—and neoclassical and contemporary ballets—are various types of what’s known traditionally as character dance. Developing centuries before the advent of classical technique, character dances add variety, virtuosity, and exotic flavor to ballets such as Marius Petipa’s Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and The Sleeping Beauty; Jerome Robbins’ Other Dances; and George Balanchine’s “Diamonds,” Theme and Variations, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto, among others. And for many students of ballet, they offer short bursts of fun, some relief from the rigors of classicism, and unlimited possibilities for exotic costuming.

Flamenco lessons for the dancers added authenticity to Royal New Zealand Ballet’s new production of Don Quixote. (Photo by Maarten Holl, courtesy Royal New Zealand Ballet)

But character dances in classical ballet have become a bit of a sore spot for contemporary audiences. The term is often misconstrued. In general, it refers to regional (and most often European) folk dances that have been modified for ballet dancers. In this age of globalization and multiculturalism, however, character dances in classical ballets sometimes play out as clumsy cultural appropriations. For example, it is difficult to imagine what Petipa truly understood about dances of the Middle East or China when he choreographed his Nutcracker in 1892.

But before we cast full blame on Petipa it should be noted that character dances in the Russian-based classical ballets of the late 19th century are more accurately attributed to Alexander Viktorovich Shiryaev, Petipa’s choreographic assistant. Numerous sources credit Shiryaev with codifying many regional European dances as they entered the ballet lexicon. Of course, the concept of featuring folk dances in ballet divertissements was nothing new. Prior ballet history is rich with examples of folk dancing.

Consider August Bournonville’s 1842 Napoli, which includes the famous Italian tarantella. The dance must have seemed quite exotic and inspiring to a Danish audience. Ballerina Fanny Elssler had made it famous three years earlier, in Paris, in a ballet called La Tarantule. In its traditional form, however, the tarantella is exceedingly complex, developing as it did in multiple regions throughout Italy. In one instance, the tarantella originates in the earlier Danza alla Strega, or “dance of the witch, and dates back to the second century (CE 170). This early form involved women attempting to create an invisible web to trap unsuspecting victims.

A later version of the tarantella includes a loose narrative of two lovers, stemming from the pilgrimages to Monte Virgine near Naples. This form greatly influenced the aspects of courtship, pursuit, and seduction found in many classical ballets. But wait—it’s named after a spider, no? That’s because the tarantella is a very fast dance, often performed to tambourine and drum accompaniment, which was believed to cure someone who had been bitten by a tarantula (a kind of wolf spider, not the large, hairy arachnid familiar to most of us) by inducing sweat and exhaustion. (The epidemic known as “tarantism” lingered in Italy and other European countries from the 15th to 17th centuries, even though it is now known that the spider’s venom is only as dangerous as that of a wasp. Allegedly, Italians died from the spider’s bite.)

The healing intent of the tarantella has mostly disappeared from the character dance versions in late-19th-century ballet, which are more often romantic endeavors. The traditional forms continue in Italy today, where the tarantella involves extensive improvisation on three or six counts.

Petipa’s choreography for Don Quixote contains variations based on traditional flamenco. In companies around the world today, authenticity and traditions are becoming more and more of a focus, due to the explosion of Spanish flamenco ensembles that now tour internationally. For example, for the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s new production, based on Petipa’s original, Jill Tanner-Lloyd from Desde Sevilla Flamenco Dance Company was hired to give the ballet dancers flamenco lessons.

Contemplating character dance in ballet inevitably brings up the difficult matter of hierarchy, or more simply put, social snobbery.

Flamenco’s legacy is possibly even more complicated than the tarantella’s. With roots in ancient Rome and Egypt, it can be traced back to 2500 BCE. Early terminology mentions the Flamen-kau of Iberia, dancers who were sent to Imperial Rome to reinvigorate a sacred flame at the beginning of the New Year. Early flamenco “ring” dances were performed by Basque ancestors as well. Somewhere along the line, the dance was linked with movement of cranes of the Camargue, an area along the Rhône in southern France, near the Mediterranean Sea; hence the relationship to the modern term “flamingo.”

Traditional flamenco, however, with its weighted style and stamped rhythms, stands in sharp contrast to the ideals of ballet. Ballet, obviously, floats on pointe or through the air. A woman’s flamenco costume might have a lengthy train of heavy ruffles, an impossibility for a ballet dancer on pointe. Flamenco has been described as a dance that “begins in complete agitation and, over time, comes to rest in equanimity.” By contrast, “Spanish” ballet variations usually follow the musical forms of the Romantic European composers who provided the scores, and there is no dialogue between musician and dancer. In ballet, a Spanish variation might refer to another Spanish form altogether, such as a bolero, fandango, malagueña, seguidilla, or habanera.

Contemplating character dance in ballet inevitably brings up the difficult matter of hierarchy, or more simply put, social snobbery. It’s possible that European ballet choreographers of the Romantic and classical periods viewed their art as superior to folk dancing, more refined than the “simple” dances of peasants and the proletariat. For example, the Hungarian czardas (pronounced “char-dahsh”), which appears to have begun in the early 19th century (though its origins go back centuries), was given its name by the Hungarian aristocracy, in condescending reference to the type of country inns where the form grew in popularity. It’s like calling an American folk dance a “shack.” At first an all-male dance, the czardas later became formalized into a male–female coupled dance with both a slow (lassu) and a fast (friss) section, alternating back and forth. The dance would have the same melody for both sections, but at different tempos, and usually ended in a kind of frenzy. It was extremely popular in 19th-century European ballrooms.

A stunning modern example of the czardas is found in Balanchine’s 1973 Cortège Hongrois, a farewell gift for ballerina Melissa Hayden on her retirement from New York City Ballet. Over the years some critics have considered this dance a sort of failure, claiming that the traditional czardas had merely been staged side-by-side with a grand pas and other classical forms. Balanchine intended the dance not only as a gift to Hayden but also as a loving tribute to Petipa, who had made an extensive Hungarian episode at the end of his full-length ballet Raymonda (from which Balanchine took Glazunov’s score for Cortège). Balanchine was among the first to restore dignity and a heightened authenticity to character dances in classical ballet, inviting a fresh look at movements that evolved out of ritual and work rather than of theatricality.

DVDs

Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote for Australian Ballet (Kultur 1999): examples of flamenco influences. Most versions of Don Q also include a seguidilla (Act 1) and a fandango (Act 3).

On Choreography by Balanchine: Tzigane, Andante from Divertimento No. 15, The Four Temperaments, Selections from Jewels, Stravinsky Violin Concerto (Nonesuch 1979): Check out Stravinsky Violin Concerto—Balanchine was from Georgia, and this ballet shows a strong influence from Georgian folk dance. The finale of the “Diamonds” section of Jewels is a polonaise, a traditional dance from Poland.

Bournonville: Napoli, Royal Danish Ballet (Kultur 2006): tarantella

On YouTube:

czardas: Swan Lake, Raymonda, Coppélia
tarantella (Neapolitan): Napoli (Royal Danish Ballet), Swan Lake
mazurka: Coppélia, Swan Lake, Paquita
polonaise: The Sleeping Beauty, Paquita
seguidilla: Don Quixote

Navigating the ballet intensive options for your students

By Lisa Traiger

Summer ballet intensives are big business. Some company-affiliated schools take in hundreds of students each summer, and with tuition starting near $300 a week, plus room and board, parents are footing hefty bills for their budding ballerinas. Auditioning can cost more than $20 per intensive. Then there’s travel to a new city, housing, meals, shoes and leotards, and incidentals. A few weeks away from home for a serious ballet student can be a huge commitment. So how do teachers help their students navigate the competitive, complex, and often confusing world of summer ballet intensives? And is there real value in such programs?

ABT artistic director Kevin McKenzie teaching in a 2003 summer intensive class. The school’s programs draw as many as 1,200 students each summer. (Photo by Rosalie O’Connor)

“An intensive helps children,” says Marcia Dale Weary, founder and director of Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Her school runs two summer intensives for more than 600 students: five weeks followed by a late-summer two-week program. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to be dancers, but it helps them with discipline, focus; it helps them tone their bodies and muscles. These days, when children hardly get any exercise, [an intensive] really makes a difference.”

But must every student go away from home, even for a short summer program, to study ballet?

School owner Jeanne Maddox Peterson believes so strongly in the importance of summer intensives for some children that her school, Maddox Dance Studio (located 100 miles north of Portland in Warrenton and Seaside, Oregon) offers scholarships that make it possible for promising dancers to attend one.

“You cannot keep these kids in your little confines,” says Peterson, who has been teaching for 59 years. “I know a lot of teachers are surprised when I say I want my students to go away, but I think it’s important. They need to go away if they want to be a dancer, or even a businessperson or something else in life. They need to find out if there is somebody better than them out there and how hard they will have to work.”

Veronica Moretti Niebuhr, a 20-year teaching veteran, operates a small studio in Savannah, Georgia, and is gung-ho about encouraging her serious ballet students to audition for and attend intensives. With only about 50 students at her school, The Studio, she realizes that she can’t compete with large-scale professional company programs like those in New York, San Francisco, Houston, Miami, and Boston, which offer competitive summer training for top-tier students.

Instead she provides one-week intensives early in the summer and at the end of August, bringing in guest faculty from New York to enhance her program. But Moretti Niebuhr makes sure that her students have opportunities to see what the ballet world is like outside of Savannah. Sometimes she even accompanies them to auditions. “It’s important for them to be around other kids who are like them,” she explains. “It’s not that I don’t think they’re getting the instruction that they need [at home]. It’s the experience of being with other dancers who are like you, and learning and preparing yourself to move on and, hopefully, start with a company and understand what it will be like dancing all day long and not just dancing after school.”

‘When they become better dancers outside the school in the summer, they come back as better dancers to represent the school.’ —Malu Rivera-Peoples

Parents especially need to understand that an intensive isn’t summer camp. That’s the teacher’s job to make clear. “We don’t go out and swim, play, and make crafts. It’s very different and we get a different kind of student, very serious, very focused,” says Victoria Leigh, who retired from The Washington School of Ballet in 2006 after helping shape that company’s well-regarded summer intensive program. She also saw countless young dancers while running the school’s audition tour for 13 years.

Leigh, now living and teaching outside of Atlanta, sees the summer intensive experience as a must for serious students considering a ballet career. “In a five- or six-week program in the summer,” she says, “a student can accomplish what will take five or six months during the regular school year because of the intensity, but also because of the total focus. They’re not in school. They’re not having an outside social life, an outside family life. They’re in a dorm and at the studio every day, and they benefit from that.”

Some teachers encourage all their top-level dancers to audition for summer intensives. Others suggest the intensive for a rare few only. Either way, teachers must keep abreast of the changing world of these programs. Thompson takes a week or more each summer to visit various distant programs to learn which to recommend to parents and students. She’s found some that she really likes and others she won’t endorse. But she emphasizes that she makes most of her recommendations from firsthand knowledge.

Another school owner, Malu Rivera-Peoples, has seen many of her 400 to 500 ballet students attend top intensives. Her school, Westlake School for the Performing Arts in Daly City, California, has sent students to programs across the country. “I recommend the intensives I like. I don’t stop anyone [from going],” says Rivera-Peoples, who notes where her students get in to extrapolate on where she should encourage students to audition the following year.

Like Peterson, Rivera-Peoples isn’t concerned about losing students to other schools. “When they become better dancers outside the school in the summer, they come back as better dancers to represent the school.”

But there’s often a delicate balance in the auditioning and intensive process. “When they go out there, especially the older kids, they compare themselves to the other kids, and they can come home either empowered or with the reality that ‘I don’t think I can do this,’ ” Rivera-Peoples says. “Ninety-nine percent come back very empowered, very enlightened, and they say, ‘Everything we learned in WSPA is actually being taught out there.’ That gives me validation as well.”

Many ballet intensives, especially those affiliated with professional companies, favor older, advanced students and look at the top-level summer classes as a way to fill in the ranks of their year-round schools and apprentice companies in the coming year or two. So dancers on a ballet career path, and their teachers and parents, should carefully research their options to narrow down appropriate choices. If possible, they should see the company and apprentice company in performance, check on the stability of the faculty from year to year, and determine whether an end-of-summer performance or audition is part of the program.

Dancers as young as 11 or 12 are welcome in some intensives, which often focus more on building technique than on a performance. “We look for a dancer who’s driven, who loves ballet, and who is taking enough classes to have strong pointe work at age 13,” says Melissa Allen Bowman, director of American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensives. With nine programs in seven cities, the intensives draw nearly 1,200 students. “We are very careful and make sure that we don’t take kids who would not be able to handle it physically.” Bowman has seen focused 12-year-olds thrive, improving their technique and making lasting friendships. The two-week programs in Los Angeles and New York are geared to young dancers.

One problem Bowman encounters is students who aren’t in shape at the start of the summer because they took time off at the end of the school year. The other issue she deals with perennially: homesickness. “It’s so individual,” she says about determining when a child is ready to leave home. “A lot has to do with emotional maturity. Some kids are ready to go away from home and they don’t look back. Some get really homesick. Some may be ready technically and not emotionally, or the other way around. Parents and teachers need to be in on the discussion.”

It’s OK, too, for very good students to choose to stay home. Weary notes that New York City Ballet’s Ashley Bouder, once a year-round student at CPYB, went to the School of American Ballet’s program only at the end of her training. Within a year she was invited to join the company. Other students might seek out an intensive program closer to home at a nearby studio, if one isn’t available at their home studio. The new teaching style and repertory can expand their ballet foundations and they still have the benefit of living at home.

Moretti Niebuhr agrees that intensives aren’t for everyone. “I don’t think every kid has to go away. I have a student who is a phenomenal dancer and she doesn’t do summer intensives. She has no interest in going away for the summer. She has one month off; she wants to have fun, and that’s fine, too.”

Summer Ballet Intensives: Important Questions to Ask

Longtime teacher Victoria Leigh, formerly with The Washington School of Ballet, has watched summer intensives grow into a profitable industry for many ballet companies. (For example, ABT’s net income from its nine intensive programs in summer 2008 was more than $500,000.) “The intensives have become so huge,” Leigh says. “Some are so large that the kids go to New York with no housing, no dormitory; it costs a fortune, and they’re taking classes that are very big, with lots of different teachers. And while it’s very exciting to be in New York, it’s not the best in terms of educational value.”

Leigh, who is a moderator on BalletTalk.com, a popular chat room that collects information on intensives (among other topics) based on personal experiences, encourages teachers, students, and parents to do research before they make a decision. Just because a company has a brand name doesn’t mean it provides brand-name summer intensive training. Look into the faculty. Is there consistency throughout the summer or are stars booked to teach one or two days, then leave?

Verify class sizes. In some programs classes can be as large as 35 or more students. While class sizes often depend on the size of the studio used, the smaller the classes, the more attention individual dancers get.

Look at the length of the program. Leigh says, “I think two-, three-, or four-week programs are better for the younger students, 12 and 13, and those going away for the first time. But after that they need to dance all summer and if they don’t have a program available in their home [ballet] school, then they need to go to an intensive if they want to be a dancer.”

Parents should explore living arrangements and how the programs are chaperoned. Leigh points out that some programs might not provide room and board, leaving teenagers to fend for themselves in a big city. Other programs offer dormitory-style living, resident assistants, and a dining hall for meals.

Leigh notes how important planned activities can be during off-hours on the weekend and evenings. If students are left to roam the campus or city without regulated activities, that’s trouble waiting to happen.

Parents should also investigate how injuries and illnesses are handled and the options for medical treatment nearby, facilities for physical therapy, if necessary, and other services and amenities for injured dancers.

While price can be a make-or-break factor, if a student with strong technique is accepted into more than one program, negotiating a financial aid package might be an option.

For anecdotal information on various ballet intensive programs, visit Ballet Talk for Dancers at dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php? and look for the intensives thread. Other sources of information include regional and national dance organizations, regional and national ballet companies, and dance publications that run listings of annual summer intensive audition tours. —LT

Simple exercises—and the right shoes—help budding ballerinas

By Alice Korsick

Every little girl who studies ballet dreams of her first pair of pointe shoes. In her imagination, those much-desired shoes will take her to magical places. Dance educators make those dreams come true. But the dreams start with careful teaching and become real only after many years of dedicated work. Here’s how to get your young ballerinas-at-heart started.

Shoes
The first step is getting the right shoe. Have students make an appointment for a fitting at a reliable dancewear shop. The following guidelines will help them find a good fit.

• For a foot with a high instep, a high vamp is necessary to ensure that the instep has adequate support and the foot will not fall forward out of the shoe.
• For a foot with a normal or low instep, a lower vamp allows the foot to be on top of the box.
• A wide platform offers more support for beginning students than a narrower one.
• Shoes should fit snugly without room for the foot to grow. Shoes that are too big will not give proper support.
• Students should be instructed to use only a small amount of padding to protect their toes; too much and they will not be able to feel the floor.

Readiness
There is no specific age for starting pointe, though some professional schools have age minimums and performance benchmarks (see “FYI,” DSL, August 2008). But there are guidelines that apply to all schools, including those whose students do not study ballet exclusively. Students are ready to begin a pointe class when they have achieved enough strength in their feet and legs to relevé to the highest demi-pointe (with instep over the toes). On average, students who have taken two technique classes per week for two to three years should be ready.

After months of barre work, teacher Alice Korsick moves her beginning pointe students at Spisak Dance Academy in Glendale, Arizona, to the center for the next stage of their training. (Photo courtesy Alice Korsick)

In many schools, students are allowed to go on pointe when the majority of the class is ready. Since every class has stronger and weaker dancers, the teacher has a choice: Tell all of the students that they can be fitted for pointe shoes, or tell the weaker ones that they are not ready for pointe. (In the latter case, teachers should be prepared to lose those students.) Another option is to suggest that the weaker students take the pointe portion of the class in soft shoes.

If school owners do not want to risk losing any students, it’s best to keep all students at the barre until the weaker ones gain strength. Encourage the weaker students to practice at home as often as possible. Appropriate home exercises (all done while holding on to a barre, chair back, or countertop) include relevés in coupé on right and left in soft shoes (to develop a higher half pointe and strengthen feet), and, on full pointe, échappés and sous-sus.

The class
It is important for teachers to approach pointe training with an eye for detail so that the students learn good habits. That foundation is crucial to their development.

A beginning pointe class should be held twice a week for 1/2 hour. It should immediately follow a technique class so that the students are properly warmed up. All beginning pointe work should be done only at the barre; barre work will strengthen all students, including those who are not quite ready.

All beginning pointe work should be done only at the barre; barre work will strengthen all students, including those who are not quite ready.

All exercises should be performed with weight on two feet at all times. As the students gain strength, increase the number of repetitions of each exercise and add new one.

Beginning exercises
For all exercises, take the time to give individual attention to make sure that all students are working correctly.

1. Walking on half pointe and full pointe: This exercise will strengthen the legs and feet. Facing the barre in parallel position, have the students walk in place, first on half pointe for 8 counts and then on full pointe for 8 counts. Repeat as needed. At first some students will not be able to get on full pointe (or even half pointe), but they will as they gain strength.

Pay attention to the following (and point these details out to your students):

• The knees should be straight for both half and full pointe.

• All toes should receive an even amount of weight.
• The ankles should be directly over the front of the shoes.

2. Demi-plié in first position: Facing the barre in first position, students should perform a demi-plié, keeping the heels on the floor. They repeat the demi-plié and then with straight legs, rise to half pointe, lifting through the thighs. From half pointe they should then relevé to full pointe and balance, holding the barre, for a few counts. Finally they roll down through half pointe with straight knees, returning to first position flat. Repeat as needed.

Pay attention to the following:

• Instruct the students to feel the pulling up in the thighs as they straighten their knees (never snapping the knees back).
• Encourage turnout by instructing the students to bring their heels forward as they come down from half pointe.
• Look for straight knees on full pointe, with as much turnout as possible, and make sure that the students are working to be on top of the box. This may not happen at first, but show them where they should be on the box.
• Watch for students who put too much weight on their little toes on full pointe; this will sickle the foot and lead to ankle injuries.

3. Demi-plié in second position: Facing the barre in second position, repeat exercise 2.

Pay attention to the following:

• The normal width of second position on flat in soft shoes is not the same as on flat in pointe shoes. The feet should be closer together so that when the dancer is on full pointe, the legs are not too wide apart. Demonstrate how the feet would be too wide apart on full-pointe relevé by starting the plié in a normal flat second position.

4. Grand plié: Facing the barre in first position, do a grand plié making sure that the body is held straight all the way down and all the way up. Roll through half pointe to full pointe as in exercise 2. Repeat in small second and fifth positions. In fifth position, both feet should spring up (sous-sus) and legs and feet are locked together.

Pay attention to the following:

• Make sure that in full grand plié the feet are not pushing over the box; the foot should be right on top of the box with ankles straight.
• Repeat grand plié in all positions, this time springing up to full pointe from demi-plié. This is achieved by a quick action of the feet and ankles while simultaneously straightening the legs. The student should end up on full pointe with the shoe’s box at the point on the floor where the middle of the foot had been on flat.
• Explain the difference between rolling up through half pointe and springing up to full pointe. Each is used for a different purpose. Here’s an example of an exercise (for a more advanced dancer) that will demonstrate the difference: Roll up through half pointe to full pointe into a relevé arabasque, then lower the heel and relevé again in that same arabesque. The dancer cannot roll up; she must spring up from demi-plié.

5. Sous-sus: Facing the barre in fifth flat position, spring up to full pointe with legs and feet locked together. Come down to fifth flat in demi-plié. Repeat 8 times with the right foot front, then repeat with the left foot front. This is a good strengthening exercise.

Pay attention to the following:

• The knees should be straight on full pointe and on top of the box.
• In demi-plié fifth flat, the heels must be down every time.
• Students must adjust their fifth position coming off pointe because if they come straight down, the front foot will cross over the flat fifth position. The back foot must come down slightly before the front foot, allowing the front foot to complete the fifth position.

6. Échappés: This is one of the most important exercises for strengthening the feet and legs. Facing the barre with feet flat in fifth position, spring up to second position on full pointe with straight knees. Return to fifth position flat in demi-plié, with heels down, changing feet with each échappé. Repeat 8 to 16 times, first with the right leg in front, then with the left.

Pay attention to the following:

• Legs and ankles should straighten in one motion to reach second position on full pointe. Watch that ankles do not wobble.

7. Bourrée: Facing the barre, bourrée in place. Start in fifth position flat in demi-plié and snap up to full pointe in fifth position. Move the feet in place quickly, alternating right, left, right, left with a fluttering motion. Start with 8 counts of bourrée with the right leg front; then while still on pointe, change to left leg front for 8 counts.

Pay attention to the following:

• Both knees must flex in bourrée.

More barre and center work
The above exercises can be combined into longer combinations as the students grow stronger. The next part of the process is to add steps that are executed on one leg, such as piqué-passé, relevé in passé, and pas de bourrée. These should be introduced only when the teacher decides that the students are ready. The same holds true for center work.

Beginning center work is an extension of most barre exercises. Laying a strong foundation at the barre with good work habits will make that time come sooner rather than later. In preparation, have the students try letting go of the barre for brief periods.

There is no magic moment when the class will be ready for center work. However, generally, students are ready when their knees are straight in échappés and sous-sus and they are working on full pointe and on top of their box. If some students are ready for center work and some are not, have them work in two groups, giving both the same exercises. As those at the barre get stronger, they will be able to join their classmates in the center.

Teaching beginning pointe is rewarding and inspiring, as you watch your students grow in strength from their first sous-sus to more difficult steps. And isn’t that what dance education is all about?

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
To teach développés devant, have the students lie on the floor on their backs with their legs crossed as though the feet are in fifth position and with both feet fully stretched. Instruct them to draw the working foot through cou-de-pied to the passé (retiré) position. Then, leading with the heel, they should extend to an attitude devant, returning the leg to fifth position by reversing the movement. Have them practice développé to second from this position as well; it is easier to feel the correct placement of the hips.

Tip 2
Once the dancers are strong enough to perform a correct développé (maintaining good turnout and able to lift the legs higher than 90 degrees), they should be careful not to “lock” the hip in the passé position. Instead, they should lift the knee smoothly and unfold the lower leg in line with the thigh using the inside thigh muscle. This movement takes control, flexibility, and strength. It is easy to kick the leg high but not so simple to unfold and hold the leg with good elevation and placement.

Blending ballet and hip-hop broadens dancers and audiences

By Lea Marshall

When you walk into a ballet rehearsal you expect to see dancers putting on pointe shoes, chatting, and warming up, maybe to the sound of a pianist playing quietly in the corner. What if instead you found dancers grooving to the sounds of a hip-hop band warming up, and chatting with world-famous singer Antwan Patton (known as Big Boi, formerly of OutKast)? This was the scene at Atlanta Ballet last spring as the company prepared for big, a collaborative project featuring a live performance by Big Boi with his band and a host of other singers from the hip-hop world, in conjunction with choreography by AB’s resident choreographer, Lauri Stallings.

For Atlanta Ballet’s artistic director, John McFall, big was a dream come true. Several years ago, when asked during a press conference what lay ahead for Atlanta Ballet, McFall says, “One of my comments happened to be, ‘I’m vitally interested in a collaboration with the hip-hop industry.’ ” As one reason for his interest McFall cites AB’s dedication to the diverse Atlanta community.

Hip-hop meets ballet in Atlanta Ballet’s joint venture with music artist Big Boi. (Photo by Charlie McCullers)

“We’re very active in going out into the neighborhoods of Atlanta to listen and respond, and we appreciate when people are interested in the arts, because we think it can really do something special for all of us,” he says. “It seemed clear to us that, here we are in the hub of part of the music industry that has an interesting dynamic. And that style of music [hip-hop], in particular, happens to speak to the neighborhoods and members of our community.”

A project combining ballet and hip-hop, then, seemed like a no-brainer. It’s not a new idea—blending ballet with contemporary or pop culture forms—but it’s a hard one to get right. After that press conference, says McFall, “of course I got a pushback immediately—emails and letters and phone calls asking why in the world would a ballet company even consider such an audacious thing.” He responded reassuringly to nervous classicists by emphasizing the value of experimentation and openness. “The arts are meant to inform and be provocative and create curiosity,” he says. Without curiosity, “you just end up living in insulated pockets, with these intangible barriers in our community.”

Thinking big
As a major hip-hop artist from Atlanta, Big Boi seemed like a good prospect for collaboration with AB. One of the company’s trustees introduced McFall to him at a fund-raiser that Big Boi threw for his Big Kidz Foundation, and “we got out of the gate that very night,” says McFall. Patton “made the commitment, and simply said, ‘Well, just don’t put me in tights and it’s a deal.’ So that’s how it started. Antwan Patton is pretty unusual. Not only is he accessible, but he’s adventurous. He’s available to going somewhere he’s never been before.”

With a big name enlisted, AB took big ideas and ran with them. Choreographer Stallings worked on focused, propulsive movement for the dancers, weaving together the classical and the contemporary. Production designer Adam Larsen created a video backdrop for the work using rehearsal footage and images of Atlanta people of all colors, all ages. The company held citywide auditions for a group of children to participate in the show. More than 200 kids auditioned, of whom 50 got to participate in workshops and 30 were in the performances.

The show encompassed dance, music, poetry (written and read by music artist Big Rube), video, flying dancers in harnesses, and gorgeous costumes (by April McCoy). It was staged in the vast, lavish, historic Fox Theatre in downtown Atlanta.

Including community children in the process and production made for some inspiring stories. Twelve-year-old Kameron Davis was the lucky kid ultimately chosen to perform the role of Little Big, a young incarnation of Big Boi. Until he was cast in the show (his mother heard about auditions on a local radio station), Davis had never studied ballet before, though he had performance experience through music—he studies several instruments—and theater. He now takes ballet classes, saying after the show he was inspired “to see if I could do it, and to challenge myself. It’s very fun.”

When he started rehearsals, Davis wondered if the AB dancers might be “tough to talk to.” He thought that since they work very hard, they’d never have time to speak to a little kid. “But it’s nothing like that. They’re very nice, and they know how to be very cool, laid back.”

Even though he found the first performance of big “nerve-wracking,” Davis says the whole experience was great. When asked what he learned from it he said, “Just to be myself, and that there’s a whole other world out there, like ballet and hip-hop, and different kinds of dance styles.”

Dancer Nadia Mara, who was one of the flyers, loved the process from start to finish. “We had a great time,” she says. “It was a pleasure to be around Big Boi and those amazing singers all the time, in the studios and rehearsing.” The ballet dancers and the hip-hop musicians, once in the studio together, expressed mutual respect for each other’s talent. “The band supported us so much. And the same thing with them, the dancers would say ‘You are so talented!’ It was fun; we really got to interact with each other.”

As for Stallings’ movement, Mara says, “It’s very precise. She knows exactly what she wants. You have to be very focused in rehearsal. But you know, we like that; we like challenging stuff. She’s a passionate choreographer and she’s inspiring. It was really nice to work with her.”

Unforgettable
By all accounts, the project made a splash. McFall was delighted. The musicians enjoyed themselves. The dancers loved it. Echoing the delight of many of the AB dancers at breaking out of the usual ballet mold, Mara says, “It’s one of those shows I’m never going to forget.”

Even the critics got into the groove. Roslyn Sulcas of The New York Times wrote, “big is big, and the hip, cheering, and wildly diverse audience on Thursday night is undoubtedly what the Atlanta Ballet’s director, John McFall, had in mind when he suggested the collaboration to Mr. Patton.”

For McFall, that was the best part of all; big answered his hopes for a show that brought two forms together and new audiences into the theater. “At the end of a performance, every single time we brought the curtain up,” he says, “the audience was literally on their feet for about 12 or 15 minutes. It was the most unusual conclusion to any ballet evening I’ve ever experienced.

“And what was really remarkable,” he continues, “was all the people that came together because of curiosity, interest: ballet-goers, hip-hop folks come for the music, and there we all were. The dynamics were really pretty stand-alone. I’d never seen it before. And what’s really great is that it was all happening in Atlanta.”

A bachelor’s in ballet prepares Indiana U. students for dance and more

By Nancy Wozny

For a small group of students—43 this year—at Indiana University, “Ballet,” is the answer to the familiar question, “What’s your major?” With less than a handful of programs in the United States offering a ballet major, college is hardly a typical track for ballet dancers, who most often join companies during their late teen years. The straight-to-a-company approach, however, is not a fit for every dancer; college may be the perfect path for the academically minded and gifted dancer.

Ballet is the sole focus at Indiana University’s dance program, which is part of the prestigious Jacobs School of Music. Instigated by the opera department as a way to bring dance into the music department, the program was originally directed by Marina Svetlova of the Original Ballet Russe some 40 years ago. The idea is to train students to the highest professional standards and prepare them for jobs in ballet companies.

The IU performance of Twyla Tharp’s Sweet Fields marked the first time the ballet had been danced to live music. (Photo courtesy Indiana University Department of Ballet)

“Ballet is such a specific and demanding art form,” says Michael Vernon, chair of the Department of Ballet. “On occasion we have other styles and techniques taught by guest artists, but they’re not regular offerings. As dancers reach a certain age certainly we hone our technique, but we also need to develop our artistry. It’s not just the steps, but the way the choreography is taught.”

Vernon, now in his third year, came to IU from Eglevsky Ballet, where he served as ballet master and resident choreographer. He was attracted to the program’s structure, put in place by the previous chair, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. “It’s really run like a ballet company, and I have a role equivalent to the artistic director,” says Vernon. “Just like in a company, there’s a hierarchy. The upperclassmen are more likely to receive larger roles. We like to give them the first try at principal roles because they are about to leave us. Of course, there’s always an exception when we get an amazing freshman.”

Ballet majors spend six hours in dance classes and rehearsals each day. Mornings are for technique class, followed by pointe, men’s class, pas de deux, and variations, plus occasional or elective classes in choreography, jazz, or modern dance, while afternoons are reserved for rehearsals for upcoming performances.

In addition to their dance studies, the students at IU carry a full academic load. Non-dance classes are squeezed in before 11:30 morning class and after rehearsals are finished in the late afternoon. Not remotely a schedule for the casual student, it tends to attract individuals who are equally serious about dance as they are about their academic courses. Students who choose to double major “are a committed bunch,” says Vernon.

In addition to the usual core classes, ballet majors are required to study an instrument for two years. Most choose piano. “It’s fabulous for their musicality,” reports Vernon. With five orchestras, several chamber groups, and many vocal ensembles, dancing to live music is a regular occurrence for ballet students. “As IU is one of the top music schools in the country, students leave having danced to top musicians in their field. It’s so valuable for them, and increasingly rare in the dance world,” Vernon says. “We are lucky to have such resources at our fingertips. We spoil them in a way, because they might rarely experience such ideal conditions.”

Vernon, a choreographer in his own right, is also known for bringing in top guest artists, including principal dancers from major ballet companies, such as Damian Woetzel (who recently retired from New York City Ballet) and José Manuel Carreño and Julie Kent (both of American Ballet Theatre). Each year, dancers have the opportunity to learn George Balanchine’s works from members of the Balanchine Trust. Vernon has carried on the Balanchine tradition put in place by Bonnefoux and former NYCB principal dancer Violette Verdy, who is on faculty. “Balanchine was not only a great choreographer but a great teacher,” Vernon says. “His steps are a great learning tool. And then there’s his musicality, which is so important.”

For faculty member Guoping Wang, the concentration on Balanchine is an important element of the program, along with the impressive roster of guest artists. “Most of our students develop a passion for Balanchine,” says Wang. “Each year, IU Ballet Theater has three major performances; works from Balanchine are often a key component. These are extraordinary opportunities for young dancers.”

Performance experience ranks as a high priority for Vernon. “We want our graduates to finish with a good deal of stage experience,” he says. “At least half of the course is performance based. Dancers improve through technique class and also by learning ballets that will help them develop—the only kind of ballets I tend to choose for the department. So by the time they join a company they have a confidence and a way of presenting themselves that only comes with experience.”

Vernon scheduled a jam-packed fall for his students, and his deep connections in the ballet world make for a stellar list of visiting artists. Sandra Jennings, a former soloist with NYCB, set Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. Daniel Ulbricht, a principal at NYCB, danced a solo choreographed by Vernon as part of a new ballet, Endless Night. “It’s really important for the dancers to be exposed to that caliber of artist,” says Vernon. “And Danny is very open and chatty with them.” And Stacey Caddell, a former NYCB soloist, staged Twyla Tharp’s poignant Sweet Fields. “This is the first time this ballet will be danced to live accompaniment,” said Vernon last fall.

Connecting to the Bloomington community remains high on the mission for Jacobs School of Music. The ballet program does just that through its annual Nutcracker, which serves as the city’s holiday extravaganza. Vernon has choreographed a traditional production; since The Nutcracker is a staple of most dance companies, it makes perfect sense to get a head start on learning it while in college.

Bloomington residents, along with the IU community, enjoy other student performances as well. “The university is a very inclusive environment,” says Vernon. Next spring Matthew Neenan, artistic director of BalletX and choreographer in residence at Pennsylvania Ballet, will set a new ballet on the IU students. And for assistance in getting Swan Lake in tip-top form, Vernon looks to world-famous former ballerina Cynthia Gregory. Everyone dances in the full-length production, including local children who are enrolled in the department’s Pre-College Program, which offers classical ballet training to the non-academic community.

To tackle more contemporary work, Vernon started a new series, “On the Edge,” which will premiere in January 2009; performances will take place in a small theater in downtown Bloomington. “The series showcases younger and up-and-coming choreographers, some right from the program,” explains Vernon. “It’s very important [for the students] to be familiar with edgy work.” Graduates must have completed two pieces of choreography as well, an experience that Vernon considers an added plus for any dancer.

The ballet program’s facilities include three studios nestled at the back of the Musical Arts Center, an impressive, fully equipped theater. The stage is about the same size as that of the New York State Opera House, and the theater is run like an opera house, with full-scale productions and crews and its own costume and scenery shops.

Students dance in several operas that are part of the Jacobs School of Music season each year. “I rekindled dancing in operas after I got here; it was so important to my own development,” says Vernon, who taught ballet for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet company. “It was something that had been going on a while back, but I rebuilt the bridge with the opera program and it provides wonderful experience for the dancers.” This season the ballet majors will enliven performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai, Cendrillon by Jules Massenet, and The Most Happy Fella by Frank Loesser.

Applying to IU is a two-step process. Prospective students apply to the university and to Jacobs School of Music, then must audition. (Auditions are held six times a year to coincide with major ballet performances.) The program attracts a wide variety of students, from those who want to dance and go to college to those who have already danced in professional companies and want to continue their training while going to school. Sometimes parents play a role in a student’s choice to pursue a college degree, while others are not ready for a ballet company at age 18 and need some seasoning; college is a good place to do just that. “Some are really good dancers and very academically minded. Perhaps they realize that without a good education their career is going to be limited,” says Vernon. “Others are just a bit undecided, like normal teens.”

Pennsylvania Ballet dancer Lauren Fadeley, 23, was one of those on-the-fence dancers who needed time and a place to figure out her next move (see “Voices of Experience,” DSL, August 2008). After a year as an apprentice and another in the corps of NYCB, Fadeley found herself burned out and injured. “I was unsure of what I wanted to do, so the IU program seemed like a wise move,” says Fadeley, who considered a career in physical therapy. “It was the perfect place for me. I loved being in a real college environment. In my junior year I fell back in love with dance and decided to go for a career again.”

For Grace Reeves, 19 and a sophomore, the choice was simple. “I am very serious about ballet, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a company and didn’t want to miss out on the college experience. Doing both made sense,” she says. “I couldn’t pass up great training with a company-like environment while being in the center of academia at the same time. It’s a dream come true.” Reeves appreciates dancing great ballets in a beautiful theater with an excellent student orchestra.

With a roster of terrific teachers and guest artists, a prestigious music school, the chance to hang out with arts-minded students, and exposure to Balanchine’s ballets and other masterworks, IU proved the right environment for Reeves. “I love having something else to concentrate on. I needed to challenge myself in other ways besides dance,” says Reeves, who enjoys history and philosophy classes. “As for piano lessons, they are really hard.” She’s banking on the fact that artistic directors will appreciate her artistic maturity and not think her too old. “I do feel like I won’t get burned out as quickly as some, possibly, because I will enter the field when the time is right and have the confidence of a college degree.”

As dancers approach their senior year, Vernon keeps an eye on their career trajectory and helps them find a good company match. In the past two years, since Vernon’s arrival, graduates have been hired by Pennsylvania, Sarasota, Tulsa, Louisville, and Nashville Ballets; the school’s website lists dozens of other companies where former students now dance. Most students do want to dance professionally, says the department head. “We have regular reviews where I make sure all is on track. I have an open-door policy; dancers can come in and talk anytime.” Career planning is built into the program. Exams are held in front of a jury just like at Paris Opera Ballet.

Vernon concedes that many dancers still choose a more direct path into a company. Since a life in ballet can be short and uncertain, obtaining a college degree is one path, aimed at a certain kind of dancer. Like any other ballet climate, it’s not a perfect life—dancers still get injured and miss out on roles they hoped for. Vernon says, “Just like in a real company, there are the same heartbreaks and triumphs.”

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1:
Do not demonstrate too much. When teachers demonstrate excessively, young students depend on copying them instead of absorbing and remembering the movements.

It is better to show the movements or combination—being very clear about what you want—and then sit down and allow the dancers to perform the movement.

Really look at your students, not through “rose-colored glasses” but realistically. Observe each student’s whole body and note where improvements can be made.

Tip 2:
Limit the dancers’ time working in front of the mirror. If you want a good eyeline (eyes aligned with the head instead of focused on the mirror) as well as no “copying,” it is best for the dancers to work without a mirror most of the time.

Working “blind” is also good practice for when they get onstage; it is very disconcerting to the dancers to suddenly be without the aid of a mirror if they are not used to dancing without one.

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
When teaching batterie (such as a royale or changement battu or an entrechat quatre), have the students start from an open rather than a closed position.

For example:

• Spring to second position on 1.                                             
• Spring into the air, beat the calves together, and alight in second position demi-plié on and-2.
• Repeat on and-3.
• Spring to fifth position demi-plié on 4.
• Repeat all.

Tip 2
To practice the correct action for batterie, have the students lie on the floor on their backs and raise the legs 90 degrees in a turned-out position. Starting in fifth position, have them practice beating the calves and changing the feet in fifth.

If the studio has two barres that form a right angle in a corner (with space between them), have the students place a hand on each barre, then push up to suspend themselves in the air and practice the beating movement (see photo at left).

Explain to the young dancers that the legs must part before a beat can be achieved. Prove this by telling them to place their hands together and clap; it is impossible to do without opening the hands first.

Take this fun quiz to see how much you know about dance

By Marcia Aller

As a teacher your role has many facets, but your long-term goal should be to produce well-rounded and educated performers. Including fun facts in your classes will impress your students and keep them interested. Take this quiz yourself, and then share it with your students and staff. Look for more mini-quizzes in future issues.

1. This ballet was not a success in Tchaikovsky’s lifetime, but it was the first ballet score he wrote. Can you name it?

A. The Nutcracker
B. Romeo and Juliet
C. Swan Lake 

2. The transition between tap combinations or steps is called what?

A. a switch
B. a break
C. a change 

3. What do you call accenting the weak beat?

A. syncopation
B. modulation
C. capitulation

4. Some people call this a waltz step, but it is also called what?

A. gavotte
B. balancé
C. tendu

5. Single, double scissor, pendulum, toe-stand are all variations of what?

A. shuffles
B. flaps
C. wings

6. Which term describes a motion that moves from joint to joint with rough jerks?

A. cracking
B. snapping
C. popping

7. Explain the term “spatial pattern.”

A. the number of dancers in a choreographed piece who are doing partnering work
B. the two-dimensional path a dancer follows in relation to other dancers and/or the audience
C. the speed with which a step or combination is demonstrated

8. In Spanish dancing, these attach to a dancer’s fingers to add percussive sounds. What are they called?

A. cymbals
B. brass knuckles
C. castanets

9. At some point a dancer must be à terre. What does this mean?

A. on the ground
B. unafraid
C. very old

10. Which category would you put these in: triple, traveling, military?

A. shuffles
B. time steps
C. nerve taps

There is no ranking system in this quiz, but you do get a gold star for trying it!

Answers: 1–C, 2–B, 3–A, 4–B, 5–C, 6–C, 7–B, 8–C, 9–A, 10–B

The competition, rewards, and exposure are all king-size at the Youth America Grand Prix

By Darrah Carr

On a warm Friday evening in April, the packed audience at the 860-seat Skirball Center for the Performing Arts breathes as one. Together the viewers gasp as a petite dancer loses her balance at the end of an impressive variation; they burst into applause as the next dancer executes 16 perfectly placed fouettés; and they fall into respectful silence as yet another competitor’s number is announced. The crowd is a mixture of nervous fellow competitors, eager young dance students, attentive coaches, and proud parents, all gathered in lower Manhattan for the final rounds of the Youth America Grand Prix.

Many in the audience had already witnessed a semi-final regional round in one of nine American cities or four international locations and saw the playing field narrow from 4,000 competitors to several hundred. Now, during the final weekend, young dancers of the highest caliber vie not only for medals but also for scholarships to respected ballet schools and for company contracts. A lucky few are chosen to perform their solos during YAGP’s historically sold-out gala, “Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow,” where they share New York’s City Center stage with more than 20 luminaries from the professional ballet world, including Wendy Whelan (New York City Ballet), Jose Manuel Carreno (American Ballet Theatre), and Roberto Bolle (La Scala).

Derek Dunn, 12, of Maryland, wond the Youth Grand Prix Award and a scholarship to the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC. "Having the chance to perform your variation again during the gala, without being judged, was great," he says. "You could show all of the people watching why you love to dance." (Photo by Segoul)

Since its inception in 1999, YAGP has developed a reputation for keeping audiences on the edges of their seats. Founded by two former Bolshoi Ballet dancers, Larissa and Gennadi Saveliev, in only nine years it has become the world’s largest international student ballet competition. More than 20,000 dancers from around the world have participated in YAGP competitions and more than $1 million in scholarship money has been awarded from top ballet schools, including The Kirov Academy, The Royal Ballet School, Joffrey Ballet School, and Canada’s National Ballet School. More than 150 YAGP alumni now dance with some 50 ballet companies worldwide, including American Ballet Theatre and the New York City, Stuttgart, and Paris Opera Ballets.

Such an impressive track record was not easily won, however. In the beginning, the Savelievs struggled to convince colleagues to trust their vision. “There was absolutely a bias against competition in the ballet world, especially in the United States,” Larissa Saveliev recalls. “Although jazz competitions were very popular here, there was nothing that specialized in ballet.”

While European dancers could easily travel to the storied Varna competition or to the student-friendly Prix de Lausanne, Saveliev wondered where she could send her American ballet students. “Many ballet schools in America followed the Balanchine technique. Perhaps they felt that since Balanchine was not a fan of competition, then they wouldn’t do it either. But that was 30 or 40 years ago. A lot has changed since then.”

In Saveliev’s view, one of the most obvious recent changes is the globalization of ballet. YAGP responded by providing exposure to international schools and company directors and by building awareness of international dance education opportunities.

“We call ourselves the Internet of the dance world, a global network of opportunities connecting dancers, teachers, schools, and companies all over the globe,” Saveliev explains. “The age for everything—gymnastics, figure skating, dance—keeps getting younger and younger. Kids need exposure at a much younger age now than they did 30 or 40 years ago. No matter how great a dancer you are, people must know you exist.”

Today, YAGP is open to competitors ages 9 to 19 and features three divisions: Pre-Competitive (9–11 years), Junior categories for women and men (12–14 years), and Senior divisions for women and men (15–19 years). “The pre-competitive division gives students a taste of the process of preparation for competition,” Saveliev says. “Some students that age are not even doing pointe work yet, but it gets their feet wet. I believe we offer the youngest age category for international competition.”

YAGP distinguishes itself from other competitions through its awards system as well. Rather than allowing only the medal winners themselves to choose scholarships, YAGP invites school directors to watch daily classes as well as the competition rounds, in order to decide whom they would like to offer scholarships to.

In the end, many scholarship recipients are not medalists. Tadeusz Matacz, director of the John Cranko School of Stuttgart Ballet, has attended the YAGP since 2002 as both a judge and a school director, and he appreciates the extra time given for watching the dancers in class. “We have five days to observe not only the possibilities of their bodies in terms of flexibility, line, feet, and proportions, but also to see what they have inside of them, to see what their spirit is like. In class, you can really see how they work, what their focus is like, and whether they are open to new teachers and different styles of moving,” he says. “While the competition rounds reward what they are doing now, in order to invite them to our school, we have to see the potential they have for future development.”

Adam Sklute, artistic director of Ballet West and a first-time YAGP judge, agrees that recognizing a student’s potential is one of the most important aspects of the competition. “YAGP is developmentally oriented and student oriented. A lot of what we are judging is based on potential, not necessarily on a single competition variation,” he notes. “I have four or five dancers in my company who were once competitors in YAGP. They didn’t all win something. But if you’re competing, you may get noticed at any level. I certainly am not always interested in just the winners.”

In order to best reveal a student’s potential, Sklute believes that teachers must choose a competition variation that suits the individual dancer. He says, “Teachers have to really know their dancers’ abilities and prepare them with a variation that they are actually capable of doing. In many regional rounds, I saw variations that didn’t serve the student well. I always wondered why the teacher gave the student something so hard. Sure, doing something highly technical is impressive, but it is less impressive than doing something well.”

Sklute also stresses that teachers must know their student’s temperament. “It is not just a question of technical level,” he says. “Is your student mentally ready? Just because someone is a good ballet dancer doesn’t necessarily mean that they are ready for the pressures of competition.”

Edward Ellison, artistic director of the New York City–based Ellison Ballet, agrees. He has coached his dancers for YAGP; the World Ballet Competition in Orlando, FL; and the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS. So he knows that competition, as well as the process of preparing for it, can be highly demanding. “Only enter if you will be properly nurtured and given ample time to prepare by a dedicated professional coach,” Ellison advises students. “Give yourself to the process without reservation. Remember that you always get the same amount out of it as you put into it.”

Ellison prepares his students for YAGP through private coaching sessions that start in the fall. “I begin with a minimum of three one-hour rehearsals per week, which become daily rehearsals as the competition draws near and their strength and stamina increase,” he says. “I make it clear that to embark on this journey requires 100 percent focus and dedication, and I feel there’s no better way to get that across than to be that example in my work with them. It’s give and take. I feed them as much of my power as I can and fully expect the same in return.”

Ellison’s dedication to his students was recognized by YAGP this year. In a special awards ceremony before the closing gala, the Ellison Ballet Professional Training Program was presented with the Outstanding School Award of 2008. It was one of several honors of the weekend. Ellison Ballet student Emily Kadow became the only American to receive a medal in the Senior Women’s Division. Her bronze medal was followed by scholarship awards for summer study at both The Royal Ballet School (UK) and the Princess Grace Academy of Classical Dance (Monaco). In addition, Ellison Ballet student Kaleigh Schock was awarded a contract with Ballet West II while yet another Ellison dancer, Christina Schifano, received a contract with The Washington Ballet Studio Company.

For Kadow, 15, the excitement of the awards ceremony was further heightened by the opportunity to perform in the gala. “I was very surprised when I won the bronze medal,” she says. “I knew I was dancing with some of the best dancers from all over the world and I felt very honored to be recognized. Then, having the chance to dance next to professional dancers and perform on the City Center stage was amazing! The theater was completely packed. It was definitely the largest stage I’ve ever danced on!”

The Youth Grand Prix (best in overall Junior Age Division) went to Derek Dunn, 12, of Edna Lee Dance Studio in Glen Burnie, MD. It was an especially touching award because Dunn’s coach, Ashley Canterna, won the Youth Grand Prix in 2000. Like Kadow, Dunn thought the gala was the highlight of the weekend. “Having the chance to perform your variation again during the gala, without being judged, was great. You could show all of the people watching why you love to dance,” he says. “Plus, the experience of seeing the professionals practice and perform was really inspiring.”

Norbert Lucaszewski, 18, winner of the overall Grand Prix Award, stands on the brink of the professional dance world. Currently a student at the John Cranko School, he’ll be joining the Stuttgart Ballet next year. However, winning the top prize at YAGP expands his options for the future. “To win the Grand Prix Award is a dream of many dancers. I never thought that this could happen to me,” says Lucaszewski. “The award will open a new door in my career. I think I’m going to have less of a problem finding a job in Europe if I ever want to leave Stuttgart.”

The gala’s theme, “Stars of Today Meet Stars of Tomorrow,” encapsulates the educational aspect of YAGP by introducing the young student participants to a wide cross-section of professional dancers. Saveliev says, “We try to invite professional dancers from those companies who offer scholarships. This helps the students learn about the different styles of different companies and schools. It informs their decisions about where to study and may reveal what their dream company is.”

Saveliev has found the professional dancers to be very generous with the student competitors. She notes, “For many of the students, this is the only chance to see some of these artists perform live. The stars understand how important live performance is in furthering dance education and appreciation.”

“Not everyone will become a professional dancer—they may have other careers,” continues Saveliev. “But they will then become the audience for dance and will make sure the passion for this art form never dies.”

Dear Rhee,
For 17 years I ran my school in the same rented location. Then this year a perfect space in an up-and-coming area with many children became available, so I decided to take the plunge and go for the new space.

Here’s the problem: There are multiple schools located in my vicinity, but I have never worried about the competition because I’ve had more students than I could handle and I have a lot of confidence in what I do. But one night last week I received a call from my office manager, who lives next door to my new location. She said that several people were looking in the windows and trying to open the doors to my new school. When I arrived the police were questioning five women who had scratched obscenities on my brand-new front door and vandalized the lock on the back door. I recognized three of them as a school owner and two of her teachers, all from my town. I was shocked and so were the police.

The following morning I received a phone call from the school owner’s husband, who yelled at me for pressing charges against his wife and her accomplices. He told me that I would be responsible for ruining her reputation and business. Not once did he say that he or his wife were sorry or admit that she had done anything wrong. He said that I should have expected something like this for having moved into his wife’s “territory.” I hung up on the guy and called the police, who told him that if he contacted me again he would be charged with harassment.

I can’t believe that another dance teacher would do this to me. Things have settled down, but a reporter did a big story on the incident in our local paper, triggering a lot of questions from my students’ parents. I respond that I would rather not speak about it until the case is settled because I don’t want to be accused of slander. It is so hard for me to keep my mouth shut about all of this; I am frustrated because I want to tell everyone what happened. Another thing I think about is that if she could do this to me, how can she be a good mentor or teacher for her students? I need you to tell me if talking about this incident is wrong or if I should continue to stay mum. —Shocked

Dear Shocked,
The answer to this one is easy: Stay mum! You are right to worry about being accused of slander, and if you have any more concerns about your rights in this situation, you should contact a lawyer. Remember, the newspaper reporter has told the story for you, and I am sure that the entire community is gossiping about it. It is quite a tale! I am saddened to think that this school owner doesn’t seem to realize that her actions make all dance teachers look bad.

By the way, you have absolutely nothing to do with ruining this person’s reputation or business (which I do think is ruined); she and her husband can blame only herself and her accomplices for making such a stupid decision. You wondered how this person could be a mentor or a teacher, and so will every parent (or at least the smart ones) who reads the newspaper article. Again, that is why you should say nothing.

I commend your ability to refrain from discussing this incident with anyone. I probably would have been on the phone, telling this incredible story to everyone I know, but you have set an example that I will live by in the future. You are going to be just fine. I wish you all good things in your new location. —Rhee

Dear Rhee,
What do you think about requiring automatic payments for everyone enrolled in my school? I have 300 students, and I am finding it harder and harder to get payments in on a timely manner, and it’s costly for me as well as for the people who are late. If I did made auto-payments mandatory, like gyms and YMCAs do, do you think people would leave my school? Times are tough, I know, and people put off dance bills for other necessary family needs.

I am moving into a 6,000-square-foot building this summer that is a lease-purchase and will eventually be my own building. It will be more expensive, but it has great exposure since it is sandwiched between an elementary school and a middle school. I thought this might be a good time to implement the auto-pay program, but do you think it might be a disaster? Thanks for your advice. —Melinda

Hello Melinda,
This is the perfect time to initiate automatic payments for everyone. I know many school owners who require it for everyone at their school and it works out just fine. A couple of people might ask for another option and it is OK to work with them, but auto-pay will be fine with the majority of your clientele. (Tell them that you’re instituting it because your accountant insists on it; then they’ll be less likely to question it.) I wish you all the best. —Rhee

Hi Rhee,
Please help me. I offer a one-hour combination ballet and tap class for 4-year-olds. One of the parents who has already registered her child told me that many of her friends are considering another school because their kids want hip-hop. A few years ago I lowered the age requirement for hip-hop classes to 5 years old (for business, not educational, reasons). Now I’m feeling pressured again.

I’ve been in business for 26 years and feel that I do keep up with the trends. I am not resistant to new ideas, music, or subjects, but I have always felt that developmentally, children aren’t ready for the hip-hop experience and techniques in preschool. I believe the basics of ballet and tap would be more beneficial and more appropriate for their age and skill levels. Am I wrong? I may lose these students forever. What’s your opinion and advice? —Barbara

Hello Barbara,
You are not the first school owner who has written to me about parents requesting hip-hop for their preschool children. I agree that basics of ballet and tap would be more beneficial and appropriate for their age and skill level, but it seems that even preschool children (or their parents) are not immune from the latest trends.

At a Project Motivate seminar last year I met a teacher who had solved the problem by offering “Hippety-Hop” in her school’s preschool classes. By doing so, she was able to please the parents who wanted their children to be trendy, but she still managed to teach basic ballet skills along with some very basic hip-hop moves. It worked well for her, so you might want to try it. I wish you all the best. —Rhee

Dear Rhee,
I have recently encountered a problem at my studio that I don’t know how to handle. I have a dancer who takes three classes a week from me and is on my competition team. She also competes with another studio in the area. Her mother has told me that the other teacher is not big on technique work, and my studio is. Now kids from the other studio are calling me about technique classes but staying with the other studio because they feel loyal to them. But if they are so loyal, why do they want to learn technique from us?

I feel like this student is getting everything from my school and using it to the other studio’s benefit, and it doesn’t seem right. But I am unsure as to how to approach the subject with her. We had an argument last year because she was going to drop out of our competition piece one week before the event due to another competition she was in with the other studio. Please help! —Frustrated in Kansas

Dear Frustrated in Kansas,
I am on your side on this one; I would feel uncomfortable in the same situation. If you have a student who chooses to train at two schools but is on your school’s competition team, then her responsibility to your school should supersede any activities with the other school. That is something you should include in your policies for next season. Basically, if students compete through your school, those activities must take priority over any others they do.

As for the students who come to you for technique classes, I might not turn them away. At my brother’s school, students come from other studios to take technique classes only. It is extra income for the school and after a while, some of them end up being full-time students with the blessing of their former teachers. I hope this info helps. —Rhee

Expert advice on teaching partnering

Interviews by Theodore Bale

Two bodies that move together, supporting each other through movements that are impossible for a single person, often create some of the most breathtaking moments in ballet choreography. But hours of partnering classes don’t necessarily add up to artfulness in a pas de deux. To find out how to set young students on the road to sensitive, safe, and sensational partnering, Dance Studio Life sought out teachers from all walks of dance education.

Tony Randazzo, now a ballet master at Boston Ballet, and Evelyn Cisneros in a 1988 San Francisco Ballet production of George Balanchine’s Ballo Della Regina. Randazzo was noted for his superb partnering. (Photo by Lloyd Englert)

What is the first thing you teach in a beginning pas de deux class?

Sarkis Kaltakchian, ballet instructor and faculty head, Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education: The first thing you teach is placement: the distance between male and female, the coordination and timing. Without these fundamentals, you can’t have a partnership.

Wendy Fish-Lawrence and David Lawrence, artistic directors, Connecticut Concert Ballet: The first exercises we teach are basic standing poses that allow both dancers to get used to being in close contact. We teach the boys how to interact with and present the girl and how to stand and guide her without being forceful or discourteous. We teach the girls how to present themselves as beautiful artists, to allow the boy to guide her while maintaining her independence, center, and stability. The boys are shown how to hold the girl’s wrists and waist in the correct position and manner and how to feel (not see) when she is on and off her center. The girls are shown how to stand strong and straight and not fidget or wiggle as the boys touch them. It can be very sweet and funny to see these first attempts at partnerships.

Tony Randazzo, ballet master, Boston Ballet: Generally, two hands on the waist is a good way to start, sensing very subtly where the sense of balance is in the woman. Maybe she’s in fifth position, maybe she’s in coup de pied, maybe she’s in passé—just having a sense of how to keep her on balance.

Bo Spassoff, president and director, The Rock School: I’ll go with the assumption that the students have already had a technique class so that they are warm. If there wasn’t any pointe work, I would make sure that the girls have some time to warm up their feet, and I would make sure that the boys do something to open and warm their shoulders and back.

Stephanie Spassoff, director, The Rock School: We don’t allow pas de deux classes to be taught unless the girls have had a pointe warm-up and both males and females have had a ballet class.

Warren Conover, assistant dean, School of Dance, North Carolina School of the Arts: The first thing I teach for a beginning pas class is simply holding the girl up on pointe in a passé as well as arabesque with a few promenades. I also teach walking together and the males presenting and escorting their partners.

How much of partnering depends on strength and how much is technique, such as physics and working together?

Sarkis Kaltakchian: Both are very important in partnering. You have to have a secure technique and an equal amount of physical strength. Timing, however, is most important.

Wendy Fish-Lawrence/David Lawrence: For girls, strong technique and physical strength are required, as is, even more so, spatial and directional awareness. Initially we teach the boys that pas de deux is 90 percent technique and 10 percent strength. As they progress that ratio lowers a bit, to 70/30 percent, and we introduce the concepts of nuance, anticipation, and musicality. For the girl to succeed she must be a master of her own technique with a strong musical and artistic awareness. For the boy, he must subjugate himself to the tastes and idiosyncrasies of his partner, always be supremely aware of her, and do all he can to make her look as beautiful as possible as effortlessly as possible. Physics and the willingness to work together are separate issues that enhance the overall success.

Tony Randazzo: To a large extent it has to do with technique, for the man as well as his partner. When it comes to lifting and carrying, especially with lifts that are held for long durations and lifts that travel in different arcs on the way up and on the way down, a base of strength is required. The more demanding the choreography is, the more strength and stamina come into play, especially the stamina needed to do several lifts in close proximity. In John Cranko’s work, for example, the pas de deux are very demanding, especially in Onegin, Romeo and Juliet, and Taming of the Shrew.

Bo Spassoff: It’s really both. Technique is perhaps the more important part. It depends on the kind of partnering you’re doing as well. We just taught Spring Waters, an older Russian pas de deux where he’s lifting her up and throwing her around. He has to make it look like it’s nothing, of course, and the girl has to have plenty of upper-body strength as well, since in one push-lift she has to push down.

Stephanie Spassoff: There has to be a similar way of moving. A lot of it can be achieved through rehearsal, but you have to move and breathe as one. You can be together in terms of timing, but if the breath and the preparation of a turn or a jump aren’t coordinated, then you’re making it hard for him and he’s making you look like you weigh a ton.

Warren Conover: In pirouettes, the ladies should not try to help their partners but have the technical ability to execute pirouettes on their own.

How do you address issues of trust and communication in your classes?

Sarkis Kaltakchian: Trust and communication are important aspects of a successful partnership. It starts in the classroom. As a teacher, I try to create an atmosphere of openness, not only to taking correction but to communication between each other.

Wendy Fish-Lawrence/David Lawrence: We start with some modern-dance trust exercises: allowing both men and women to be led by the other with eyes closed and using off-balance poses and experimentation to emphasize the importance of alignment to both partners. We also emphasize the importance of body language and facial expression at all times; dancers must always be positive and eager with their partners as well as with choreographers, teachers, and directors. This attitude creates a positive and supportive environment within which the students work and learn.

Tony Randazzo: Partners each have certain responsibilities. If they really focus on their task, trust will happen over time. It’s when they start interfering with each other’s job and get outside of their own responsibilities that they start developing the wrong relationship and trust cannot come about. It’s a learning curve for the men and the women. The women have to hold themselves as they would if they didn’t have a partner, and the men need to develop the skill of sensing balance. If the women keep trying to help the men by trying to get themselves back on balance when they’re slightly off, then the men never have the opportunity to discover that the balance is off. The man just senses that the woman is kind of twitching, so he doesn’t have the opportunity to learn and improve. Then he feels mistrusted and she feels not cared for, and it develops a negative cycle. They have to encourage each other for quite a while, and then they will notice that things really do start to come along if they stay in their own domain.

Bo Spassoff: What I say in the beginning is always a joke: “No matter what happens, it’s always the boy’s fault!” It makes the girls feel better! I think in each class we stress a clear understanding between the partners of the principles they need to know, and how to do it and communicate together. We have a lot of boys in our school, and we don’t think it’s productive, obvious, or logical to have the same partner day in and day out. Coaching a pas de deux for a performance, of course, is different than a partnering class. We stress that they talk to each other, and when you see they’re having problems, you take them aside. It’s that personal touch of asking them what the issues are, what could be working better—and then you work on that. It’s pretty much like coaching anything.

Stephanie Spassoff: I usually tell the girls that they must understand that they are at the mercy of the guy. He can make you look supremely talented or like a blithering idiot, no matter how gorgeous a dancer you are. No matter what you think of the guy, you have to be nice and respectful, understand his point of view, and do everything you can do to help him help you. You don’t give attitude, you don’t get huffy, and you don’t treat him like he’s there to serve you. It’s a working partnership, and you have to have mutual respect. The bottom line is that he can totally ruin you, so you don’t want to have arguments with him. Aside from the fact that you shouldn’t treat a human being like that, it’s in your own best interest to make sure that he wants to make you look good. A lot of wonderful, strong dancers try to do the entire pas de deux by themselves—the balances, the turns, all of it alone. The woman needs to be as self-sufficient as she can be.

Bo Spassoff: Lupe Serrano, who was director of The Rock School before I was here, would try to do all of Black Swan pas de deux by herself, saying, “Then I knew I wouldn’t have a problem with the guy.”

Warren Conover: Trust and communication are encouraged by having the students verbalize what is needed in order for the ballerina to maintain her balance and placement. Sometimes I have the ladies fall backwards into the guys’ arms in order to learn trust. This has to be monitored carefully, making sure the guys are prepared to catch their partner.

Some schools teach students mainly the grand pas de deux, which are fun and exciting to learn—but wouldn’t it make more sense to teach soloist parts, such as the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, which they might have a greater chance of performing early in their careers?

Sarkis Kaltakchian: It is crucial to choose repertoire that fits the abilities of the students. That’s why, for beginning levels, it is important to choreograph small exercises that will benefit the growth of their partnering technique. When the students mature and grow stronger, the instructor can begin to introduce repertory which fits their abilities without having to change the choreography. Each student has different strengths. It is important to choose choreography that will suit the student’s strength, physically and artistically.

Wendy Fish-Lawrence/David Lawrence: We believe in both. The pas should provide challenges appropriate to the level of the dancers’ skills. No matter the pas, the music and the chance to learn actual choreography should be exciting to the students, not frustrating.

Tony Randazzo: Depending on the curriculum and how much time is available, there are advantages to diving into the exciting. That gets students inspired and gives them immediate feedback as to where their skills are lacking or where they have a natural proficiency they didn’t expect. On the other hand, it’s very important to go over all the rudimentary skills; something like the peasant pas is more basic, and that’s a way of building confidence without overwhelming the students and risking injury. Also, it’s not just repertory that is important. There should be exercises that are well balanced on both sides, such as promenades in both directions, on both arms, with women balancing the body on the right and the left. Sometimes choreography is very unilateral, so the students will never learn how to do something on the left in a piece of choreography the way they might in a class exercise. There are advantages to both approaches.

Bo Spassoff: The students definitely want to do the grand pas. The reality, for me anyway, is that you teach bits and pieces of the technique involved in the various pas de deux. Sometimes you might do just 8 to 16 counts of a pas de deux. Teaching a straight pas de deux in a class is very time consuming, especially when there are 15 to 20 couples. Also, it doesn’t serve the cause as well as an understanding of the pieces that go into the puzzle. Certainly we do coach and work on pas de deux for competitions, but the most important thing is individual technique. When it comes to auditions, you will be looked at first and foremost as an individual.

Stephanie Spassoff: The grand pas de deux have been choreographed for more mature artists, people who have spent a good deal of time in class perfecting their craft and their art. As Bo says, there are segments you can pull out that are wonderful teaching tools.

Warren Conover: A grand pas de deux is taught usually to only top-level students. Although all levels are eager to learn a pas de deux, students need a strong technical foundation, as well as physical strength for lifting for the males. Physical strengthening for the guys takes time. Bodies develop at different times of maturity and speeds as well.

What’s your single best piece of advice for men?

Sarkis Kaltakchian: I offer the same advice to men and women: Be open-minded. Listen to your partner; work as a team. Create trust and harmony. That is when the true art of partnering comes to life and two individuals start moving as one.

Wendy Fish-Lawrence/David Lawrence: Learn to see with your hands. Be aware of and ready for anything that may happen to your girl and solve it as seamlessly as possible. Make presenting her and dancing with her the obvious joy and privilege of your life. Her success is your success!

Tony Randazzo: Core stability, core strength. Abdominal and back strength are so important. The whole core stability regime is very important for any young man who wants to become skilled at pas de deux, be capable, and remain injury free.

Warren Conover: When I performed Paul Taylor’s Airs with American Ballet Theatre, Taylor came to a rehearsal. We ran the piece and danced our hearts out. After, Paul said to us, “Come here, sit down; I want to talk with you.” We expected some great technical insight about our dancing, but instead he said, “You need to go out and have lunch together. You are not dancing with each other; you need to get to know each other.” Those words remain fresh in my mind. It was the best advice I ever received.

And the best single piece of advice for women?

Wendy Fish-Lawrence/David Lawrence: Develop your technique, strength, artistry, and musicality as well as you can, and let your partner (or require him to) enhance your beauty.

Tony Randazzo: Just have the best possible technique that you can have, because that’s what you’ll need to dance well with a partner. All the man offers you is greater expression within the technique that you have. He can’t fix your technical flaws. He can’t save you; he can help you only to express more fully what you have mastered on your own.

Bo Spassoff: It’s called “partnering,” not “soloing.” So be conscientious, sensitive, and listen to your partner. It’s a team effort. Yes, there are moments when the female shines more, but in the end it’s for both of you. You have to have a mental and intellectual sensitivity and approach, and then everything else will follow.

Stephanie Spassoff: You have to get your ego out of the way. If you want to look better, or you think, “He’d better make me look good,” that will only trip you up. You have to go into it wanting to express the choreographer’s intent and to bring joy and inspiration to the audience and to the art form. And to make it as comfortable for the poor guy who is schlepping you as you possibly can! You have to go into it with a comfortable, supportive, and loving attitude or it’s going to show in the pas.

By Mignon Furman

Tip #1
To explain the concept of turnout to a young dancer, have the child stand with legs parallel. Draw a straight line along the thigh through the knee and down the shin to the center of the foot. (Use chalk so that it can be removed easily.) Explain that the line must always remain straight even when turning out, and that only by practice and gaining strength and flexibility will each leg turn out to 90 degrees with the line remaining straight. Explain that if the leg turns out from the knee instead of the thigh, the line will not be straight.

Tip #2
To maintain and improve turnout when teaching ronds de jambe à terre, explain that the leg must pass through pointing to the corner of the room as it circles on the floor. In en dedans, the turnout must be held from the second position through the front corner before bringing the leg to fourth position devant. The same principle applies when working en l’air. The corner positions must be observed and the leg lengthened without disturbing the hips.

By Mignon Furman

Tip #1
A demi-plié provides both spring and momentum in allegro work, making fast steps easier, jumps higher, and landings softer. Demi-plié must be used at the beginning and end of all springing and allegro steps, including glissades. A well-executed glissade must be completed in one count, making certain to put the same energy in stretching the closing foot as in the leading foot.

Tip #2
Demi-plié also facilitates the transfer of weight in a piqué. Before stepping onto a piqué (or posé), the dancer should demi-plié on the supporting leg to enable a good push off onto the stepping leg. This places the dancer solidly on the stepping leg on pointe or demi-pointe.

Why novice ballet students deserve top-notch teaching and how to make it happen

By Vanina and Dennis Wilson

“I’ll teach at your school, but only advanced or, in a pinch, intermediate students. I won’t teach ballet to beginners.” Is there a school director anywhere who has not heard this version of “I don’t do windows”? Many instructors consider it beneath their dignity to teach ballet—or any kind of dance—to beginners. A lack of teachers who are interested in and qualified to teach beginning ballet, along with some of the ways school directors respond to this problem, can negatively affect the quality of the instruction.

Why do so many teachers prefer working with advanced students? The obvious answer is that those students tend to be committed and enthusiastic and to work harder than their lower-level schoolmates. Most of them do ballet because they love it, and they push themselves without much instructor intervention. The teacher need only concentrate on the dancing—a pleasant and not-too-tiring proposition.

A second reason is that advanced students may be technically easier to teach than beginning students, especially for new instructors who are making the transition from performing. Performers have trained their bodies to do most ballet moves with ease and fluidity and have spent their professional lives around people with similar mastery. Consequently they find the capabilities of students who have already absorbed the basics of ballet training more familiar, and therefore consider such students easier to teach. Classes with advanced students who add beauty and intricacy to their dancing can be quite exciting; teachers can develop  challenging series of steps with various tempos and types of music for these students. Not surprisingly such classes appeal to ex-performers who are familiar with this kind of energy.

The challenge of teaching beginners
Teaching beginners requires different skills than those needed in working with advanced students, and an instructor who is good with advanced students will not necessarily be equally good with beginners. In other words, the ability to teach beginners is not a “lesser-included capability” of the ability to teach advanced students competently. The most important skill in teaching beginners is a great deal of patience. Young children who are starting ballet, even in professional programs, often do not display the kind of commitment required to make progress. Discipline problems can arise when children cannot or do not want to focus on the class. Even focused students learn ballet slowly. The first years of training involve conditioning the body so that it can perform ballet moves safely and beautifully, and this development progresses slowly even for physically gifted and motivated students. The moves tend to be static, involving considerable repetition, correction, and command, and students do not actually dance a great deal at this stage; consequently teachers must be passionate and work hard to keep students interested. Having an unmotivated teacher in the classroom may lead to bored and resentful students who are prone to quitting.

Instructors of beginning-level students must also have a complete understanding of ballet moves and know how to demonstrate them. They must know some anatomy and be able to estimate what the students can do given their physical abilities and limitations. Their goal should be to enable students to work to their maximum while never going beyond their capability, thus risking injury. Ironically, performers who are transitioning to instructors may have forgotten the basics they went through themselves many years before. Those with a natural facility for ballet often have difficulty analyzing the detail of individual moves and assisting less-gifted students in conditioning their bodies.

Finally, teaching ballet to beginners is just more work. The instructor must plan not only each lesson but also the course syllabus, as well as assessing the class’s pace and organization. This process becomes easier with experience, but each class has its own challenges. Only teachers who are passionate about teaching ballet are likely to enjoy teaching ballet to beginners.

The director’s dilemma
Most school directors say it is difficult to find instructors who are willing and able to teach beginners competently. Because the directors know that only a small fraction of students will proceed to the intermediate or advanced levels, they may conclude that beginning-level ballet instruction is not important. Sometimes they assign their least qualified instructors, advanced students, or even parents to teach beginning classes. They may rationalize that students who acquire bad habits in such classes can be “cleaned up” by better-qualified instructors in more advanced classes.

But resolving the dilemma this way leads to problems. Students who have acquired bad habits because of deficient early instruction do not do basic ballet moves well, nor are they ready for more complicated moves. Even students with no professional potential run an ever-increasing risk of injury if they try to perform moves beyond their capability. For students who have professional potential, the results of poor initial training can be devastating. Besides the increased risk of injury, their bad habits will severely limit their ability to compete for positions in professional companies.

A director’s hope that a student can be cleaned up in later instruction is apt to be no more than wishful thinking. Almost every teacher has had the unhappy experience of seeing ballet students with good physical potential who are limited by deficient early training. Teaching such dancers requires being especially attentive to their moves and quick to correct mistakes, a tiring and often unproductive process. Such students, even if they understand the need for correction intellectually, may soon begin to resent what appears to be an incessant barrage of criticism. And despite both the students’ and teachers’ best intentions and efforts, ballet dancers, like all human beings, tend to revert to bad habits that feel comfortable under conditions of stress. Unfortunately, this stress is likely to be induced by competitions, auditions, and performances, the very conditions under which proper technique is most important.

Searching for a solution
There exists no “magic formula” that will enable school directors to find and retain instructors who have the temperament, skills, and desire to teach students of beginning ballet. School directors can, however, take steps to improve their chances.

First and foremost, do not try to rationalize the problem away by pretending that beginning ballet instruction is not important. Second, demonstrate the value that you place on beginning ballet instruction by visiting those classes at least as often as you do advanced classes, perhaps even teaching them periodically. Identify beginning students who show potential and desire, pay as much attention to them as to your advanced students, and encourage them to participate in competitions and auditions when possible. Finally, use the tools available to you as a school director (status and money) to reward instructors who show excellence in teaching beginners. Recognize those who teach beginners well (for example, change your faculty roster from alphabetical order and list them first) and consider paying them more or giving them a bonus.

People do respond to such incentives, and by using them you will improve the morale of beginning ballet instructors, the performance of beginning students, and the overall quality of your ballet program.

By Mignon Furman

TIP #1: Corrections
Do not give instructions through the music. If a dancer is not performing the steps correctly, stop the music and correct the steps. Do not give more than two corrections at a time. If more than two are necessary, let the dancers get the first two correct before proceeding with further corrections.

TIP #2: Communication
Keep your words focused. Do not ramble on and talk too much during a class. Let the students dance to maintain the rhythm and dynamics of the class.

There is a correct way for teachers to ask a question in a class. Do not allow the students to shout a collective response or make a show of hands. Rather, make certain that the class is attentive, ask the question, look at each dancer in turn, and then call one by name to answer. If the answer is not correct, request the answer from another dancer, without making the first dancer feel inadequate.

How tap training benefits ballet dancers

By Joshua Bartlett

Tap and ballet. They’ve been the bread and butter of most American dance studios since the post-Depression years. Today studios offer a variety of other dance forms like lyrical, modern, hip-hop, and body conditioning courses like Pilates. But the combination of tap and ballet as a basic dance curriculum has produced a steady crop of dancers for each generation.

So if these two very different dance forms have provided the backbone of American dance training, how do they relate in terms of exchanging technical and artistic benefits to dancers? More specifically, how does studying tap help ballet dancers become better ballet dancers?

The most obvious answer lies in the way that tap dancers develop keen musical ears through the application of complicated rhythms. Vicki McLean, the academy director and ballet mistress for the Lone Star Ballet in Amarillo, TX, has always stressed the tap curriculum for that studio. “The main thing about tap is that it benefits all dancers, not just ballet dancers, because of the rhythm of the music,” says McLean. “One of the ways that I teach is that if you can clap out the rhythm of the step, you can do it either with a tap shoe or ballet shoe. I don’t care if it’s Giselle or 42nd Street, you have to get the rhythm of the music.”

Graham Lustig, who directs American Repertory Ballet (pictured here are company dancers Joe Bunn and Kristin Scott), says that tap teaches dancers a musical discipline that transfers to ballet. (Photo by Eduardo Patino)

Graham Lustig, artistic director of American Repertory Ballet in Princeton, NJ, began tap and ballet training at a small studio in West London at a young age and continued tapping until he was 14. “There is something definitive about making sounds with your feet,” says Lustig, who trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined Dutch National Ballet at age 18. “In ballet there is a little room for leaning forward or backward on a waltz beat or a note. That isn’t the case with tap—you’re either on the beat or not. It teaches you a musical discipline which you can transfer to ballet.”

McLean compares tap dancers to the drummers in bands. “The drummer holds the band together with the rhythm. Rhythm holds ballet dancers to what they are supposed to do,” she says. For example, a dance phrase might include an elongated movement, followed by two quick beats, followed by an elongated movement. “Ballet dancers have to learn to listen,” she adds. “I had a wonderful tap teacher who did all the classics in his tap shoes. He would add rhythmical movements and sounds to Swan Lake. All of a sudden you would hear a different tonal quality. I carried that with me through many years of study.”

Another advantage to studying tap emerges in the speed that both tap and ballet require. “I think tap helps tremendously with ballet, particularly with the allegro, the quick movement, the quick change of weight,” says Fred Knecht, who founded Knecht Dance Academy with his wife in Levittown, PA, 49 years ago.

Joseph Fritz, the deputy dance director at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, began tap classes at age 8, before he started ballet training. “Because of tap, I was always good at petit allegro combinations and moving from one side to the other side.”

Tapping also augments coordination of movement. “All tapping is done on the ball of the foot,” says Fritz. “You never have your heel down except when you stomp. Being on your toes enables you to move quickly from one spot to another. It’s like watching the best boxers—they’re always on their toes, not back on their heels. It enables you to move quicker and have better coordination.”

The weight change required of tapping can aid dancers in understanding the off-balance movement required in Balanchine ballets and other contemporary and neoclassical choreography. “In tap the weight changes are sophisticated, fine, and very fast,” says Lustig. “You work different parts of the foot. When you scuff and slide, you take the center of gravity off the regular center of ballet.”

At Denise’s Dance Connection, run by Denise Ronco in Rochester, NY, all students are required to study ballet and tap before they can take hip-hop. “The more knowledge you have of different dance forms, the better equipped you are to handle a dance career,” says Ronco. “In this day and age, you need to be a well-rounded dancer.”

McLean agrees that versatility offers an advantage. “They used to talk about a triple threat. Now you have to be a multiple threat,” says McLean, who danced in ballet and jazz companies and had a recurring acting role on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. “Ninety-nine percent of my students who are really good ballet students are also good tappers.”

Some ballets include tap in their choreography. The most famous, Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, features an extended tap solo for the Champion Roper when he tries to impress the Cowgirl. (Knecht remembers that when Rodeo was first danced in 1942, the tap dancing didn’t impress all balletomanes. “People thought it was horrible that they were going to have tap dancing in a ballet. They frowned on it,” he says.) When New Jersey Ballet mounted a production of Rodeo, Fritz danced the Champion Roper because so few of the company men knew even rudimentary tap steps. Now, he points out, half of the dancers at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet started with tap.

In George Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, excerpted from the musical On Your Toes, the lead male is a hoofer who falls in love with a dance-hall girl. Jerome Robbins referenced tap steps in his wartime sailor ballet, Fancy Free. Twyla Tharp directly used tap in Eight Jelly Rolls and slyly threw in tap moves in ballets like Baker’s Dozen and Nine Sinatra Songs. And in Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, the Widow Simone does a wooden clog dance that requires some of tap’s rhythmic virtuosity.

Every big ballet company requires character dancing from its performers in ballets like Swan Lake and Don Quixote. Anyone who has sat through lame national dances in the third act of Swan Lake can tell which dancers have had only ballet training. “Tap helped me with my character and folk dancing, because of the rhythmic work with the feet,” says Lustig. “It also taught me how to stay grounded.” When the Metropolitan Opera staged a production of Carmen, the flamenco choreographer Maria Benítez chose Fritz as a soloist because he quickly picked up the complicated rhythms necessary for flamenco footwork.

‘The main thing about tap is that it benefits all dancers, not just ballet dancers, because of the rhythm. . . . I don’t care if it’s Giselle or 42nd Street, you have to get the rhythm of the music.’ —Vicki McLean, Lone Star Ballet

Learning tap is invaluable for ballet dancers who decide to audition for Broadway shows or other theatrical dancing. One of Knecht’s star students, Nadine Isenegger, has served as the understudy to Cassie in the current Broadway production of A Chorus Line (she has performed the role about 40 times) and was cast as the ingénue, Peggy Sawyer, in the tap dance spectacular 42nd Street.

Dance students sometimes forget that ballet is a theatrical art form, something that is always evident in tap dancing. Most young ballet students, fixated on learning positions and vocabulary, tend not to relax into movement and make it spontaneous. “This is the critical difference with tap—you completely let go and surrender,” says Lustig, who introduced tap into ARB’s Princeton Ballet School curriculum when he took the reins in 1999. “That’s not what you are thinking when you are 7 years old, learning your first glissade or jeté. With tap there is all this fun stuff you can do. You are usually dancing to a completely different type of music and letting your hair down. It’s a buoyant, optimistic experience, as opposed to doing a ballet solo when you are young, [where] the challenges can take away from the sheer joy of doing it.”

The evolution and histories of ballet and tap couldn’t be more different, particularly in terms of class distinction, although both were invented as a means of entertainment. The roots of tap dancing came from Irish solo step dance, African dance forms, and the English clog dance. Among black American slaves, buck-and-wing dancing became popular, which made its way into 19th-century minstrel shows and showboat performances. The soft shoes eventually gave way to metal-plated soles in the 20th century, and more sophisticated forms of tap appeared in vaudeville reviews, Broadway shows, and on the silver screen.

Ballet, on the other hand, began in 1661 when Louis XIV formed the Académie Royale de Danse. Designed specifically for the royal courtiers, the dance technique included many ballet steps and positions recognizable today (including turned-out positions). The opera ballet soon developed, and the art and technique of ballet blossomed through the 18th and 19th centuries.

Of course, the sheer polar opposition of ballet and tap appealed to Americans, who created new art forms by combining existing ones. The cross-pollination of ballet and tap, along with other dance forms, has produced a uniquely American hybridization. A good example of the breeding of tap and ballet is the oddity called toe-tapping—dancing on pointe with taps attached to the platform of the shoe. Harriet Hoctor, a 1930s Broadway vaudevillian, created a sensation by toe-tapping up and down escalators and tapping out the meter to Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven.”

So what about the reverse of the original question: How does ballet benefit tap dancers? Some teachers think it helps tremendously, while others are not entirely sold. Linda Lavender Ford, the director of Linda Lavender School of Dance in Monroe, LA, thinks that ballet training is an essential element in tap dancing. “Ballet is the basis for everything. I really think that if you can’t do ballet, you can’t do tap,” says Ford, who loves the elegance of old-style tap dancers like Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell. “You have to have that body placement and center and control. Once you have seen a ballet-trained dancer and one who isn’t, the difference is obvious. The ballet port de bras is necessary for good tap dancing.”

Fritz disagrees. “It’s a totally different ball game,” he says. “If you have studied ballet all your life, you might struggle to pick up the tap steps.” That opinion probably rings most true among dancers who have been rigidly trained in ballet.

Lustig sees reasoning to both sides of the argument. He remembers that as a child it took him a full year to learn not to turn out while tap dancing. However, because ballet requires slower work and deep analytical thinking, he feels that it can help tap dancers understand where the movement is coming from, like the placement of the arms from deep inside the back. “Pirouettes and steps like chassé en tournant, you can translate into tap,” he says. “It also helps dancers to understand the principle of spotting pirouettes and a sense of control.”

In this era, when dancers are required to do just about everything—look at the popularity of the TV show So You Think You Can Dance—the more you know, the more you can better your career. Tap and ballet may be very different creatures, but certainly knowing tap technique can help a ballet dancer become a more dynamic performer.